Planet Erf

"It's just an inch from me to you, depending on which map you use."--Jewel

Maps, like telephones, have always fascinated me. I've been known to stare at a road atlas for hours with no particular objective, just for entertainment. Museum exhibits with maps are invariably my favorites. My wife gave me an atlas for my birthday a few years ago because she couldn't figure out what else I would like and knew a map would be a surefire winner.

It's something I can't explain, but maps allow me to place myself somewhere in the here and now, to feel like my future destinations are something known to someone. Maybe I'm somewhat of an agoraphobe, but maps serve as a comforting anchor point in the otherwise frightening vastness of the universe. "It's okay," my inner child says, "Somebody's already mapped this out . . ."

So it's no wonder I love Google Earth. (Or as my son says, "Google Erf.") If you've never spent an hour surfing through this virtual world at supersonic speed, touring actual satellite images of every important structure you've ever been in or every mountain you've ever climbed, then you're missing out an exhilarating experience, and your life is the lesser for it.

The effect of Google Earth is dizzying. The opening screen starts with a panned out image of the whole planet. Type in any destination, and then watch the earth automatically rotate towards you and seamlessly zoom, zoom, zoom through the atmosphere until an image from a satellite reveals the round, blue baby pool in your backyard and your silver truck parked out front.

Go to the Grand Teton and tilt the image so that you are looking at the same looming facade that Ansel Adams captured a hundred years ago, and then rotate wildly around it to catch its every contour from every angle. Zoom in and the pan around to track the exact route you will be climbing this summer.

Go to the new home your hoping to buy and check if the neighborhood has got sidewalks, how big the trees are, if the backyard is landscaped, whether it's got a covered porch or room for a garden.

The images aren't real-time, but they are vividly detailed, and the real magic is in the program's seamlessness. There is no choppiness, only a smooth ride around the globe on your very own Google magic carpet. Go to Brazil, Russia, Africa, China, Iraq--but be aware that the army has blurred the images over militarily sensitive areas due to their extreme accuracy.

So if you haven't already, go download Google Earth. It's free. Check it out for an hour and see if, by the time you're done you don't think the world is just a little bit smaller, a little more personal, and little more precious. Maybe you'll even want to give your tree a hug, your neighbor a cookie, and your distant friends a phone call.

It's a small world, after all. Happy Earth Day!