May 25, 2026

## The Frayed Edges of a City Map

As I walked to the bus stop this morning, I noticed the worn-out edge of a city map that someone had discarded on the sidewalk. The creases and tears told a story of its own – a map that had been folded and refolded so many times that it had lost its original shape. The edges were frayed, like the threads of a well-worn sweater.

The map itself was a relic of a bygone era, with outdated street names and defunct bus routes. But it was the way it had been carelessly discarded that caught my attention. It was as if the person who had used it had simply thrown it away without a second thought, without considering the stories it might hold.

Today I realized: the discarded map is a metaphor for the stories we leave behind – the ones we don't bother to record, the ones we forget, the ones we leave to fade away like the creases on a worn-out map.