True North

I was reading a book a few days ago in which the main characters are geocaching, and they get into a discussion about the difference between magnetic north versus true north.   It's something I don't think I've thought about in quite some time, since high school maybe, and I never did the kind of hiking or sailing where I left all trails behind and would need to do true navigation.  Magnetic north is always relative to where you are at the time, and it can change, it can trick you a little bit.  But true north is constant; true north might be your best way of getting where you're going.


Lying in bed last night, lights out, listening to music as I fell asleep, I heard a song called  "True North" and it brought back the things I'd been thinking after reading about the navigation.  The song had nothing to do with navigating the earth, and everything to do with navigating relationships.  For me, personally, it's much easier to navigate a path on the ground than through messy human interactions.  No compass is going to help me work through anything that complex, that constantly changing.


And so I started thinking about it, magnetic north moves.  It moves a lot.  As much as 1200 miles away from the North Pole at some times, as little as 200 miles at other times.  Those who navigate by compass have to understand declination - to constantly know the degree of difference between true north and magnetic north.  Understanding declination for a sailor is the difference between getting home to those he loves, and drifting endlessly.  I mean, maybe that sailor would go on and have amazing adventures and discover new places and find new species of animals.  But he wouldn't make it home.  I wonder if Columbus had some trouble with finding true north.


When my girls were younger, as they moved into adolescence, I gave each of them a necklace with a compass on a chain and a quote on the back from Thoreau about going "confidently in the direction of your dreams."  I told them I wanted them to always know the direction they were going, and to keep that in mind when they made choices.  A few years later, after they'd asked me where MY compass was, I had one tattooed on my arm...as Katie pointed out, maybe not the best demonstration of good choices, but since I'm an adult, and an adult who loses a lot of jewelry, it seemed the best way for me to remind myself.


So, all of that was on my mind when I was falling asleep last night, and still thinking about magnetic north and how it can change.  Magnets are cool - I used to do the neat trick as a kid where you rub a needle on a magnet, and then float it in water to make a compass of sorts.  But it wasn't fool-proof either.  I'd have been in trouble trooping through the woods with a cup of water and a needle that was iffy on its direction.  But...then, I've also learned in the last few years that strong and rigid isn't always the best way to go.  Sometimes it's those who are flexible and able to change who are more likely to win an altercation.  Magnetic north can change, as direction changes.  True north is rigid, fixed.  You can always find your way to true north, but maybe sometimes that's no longer the destination you need.


Maybe we need both?  True north stays where it is; it's our ultimate guide, our ultimate goal, but magnetic north can take us some pretty cool places as well, as we follow our compass step by step.  I'm pretty bad at making graceful metaphors, but where I was going with that was more to do with having one goal, one reason behind everything we do.  But that doesn't stop us from having other goals along the way, other dreams, other directions we have to travel.  My kids are my ultimate true north, but I'm finding more and more, as they get older, that there are side treks that pull me away.  Magnetic north might be pulling me away from true north, but it doesn't change that it's there all the time, always pulling me back as well.


It's easy to get side-tracked.  We all have things we want out of life, out of ourselves in life, expectations.  Most of them never seem to get realized.  My friends are always telling me, "someday" while they stay on their fixed course for true north, never deviating, no declination.  But maybe that's the point of a compass - it takes into account where we are at all times, before it tries to tell us where to go.


You don't need a compass to navigate - ancient mariners used the stars, the patterns of waves on the ocean, the currents and the winds.  And we keep finding new ways of navigating over land and sea.  GPS is the modern equivalent, and it takes navigation away from the earth, away from magnetic north, away following maps, and uses satellites to pinpoint where we are and where we're going, though, honestly, Siri and her GPS pal do NOT understand the variables of Houston traffic and twice have sent me to streets that dead end and pick back up a block later, leaving me to use logic to find my way.  Maybe the ancient mariners were smarter than we realized.  Me, I'd way rather find my way looking up at the stars, than down at a box in my hand.  You miss too much that way.


To know where my compass should point, all I need to know is what my destination should look like, but to make the navigation worthwhile, I need to enjoy the journey.  It's where my goals come in.  Where my dreams make sense - without a dream to guide the best explorer, they'd have just stayed home.  It's certainly easier.


I hope all of my friends find those two things - their true north, their reason for working and traveling.  And I hope they follow their magnetic compasses, or even better, their stars, along the way, and find time to fill in some goals along the journey.  And I hope sometimes everyone puts down their compass all together and trusts themselves to have an adventure, and still get back to true north when the adventure is done.  Take midnight swims in the ocean.  Drive your car down dirt roads that are unmarked.  Dance with strangers in the desert.  Or, maybe that's just me...I mean, I'm the one who put a compass on my body to remind myself to make sound decisions.  In any case, know where you're going, but be ready to take a different path when presented.  Meanwhile, I can't wait to find out what's going to put my brain on overdrive when I should be sleeping tonight.