Every morning and every night I study my appearance in the bathroom mirror. Each time, I create a little more of my own idea of who I am. Incrementally, one day at a time, I am building an identity. Of course this doesn’t only happen through the lens of my bathroom mirror. Every aspect of my life helps to inform this cohesive image of self.

The context for this invention of self is everything that happens in my life, everything I experience, everything I learn, but most importantly, for the purposes of this story, my physical surroundings. And as I invent this idea of self, I am also inventing these surroundings.

I create my own idea of the landscape around me through a process of walking, looking, imagining and attributing. Sometimes I learn something factual about this landscape: About its history, its uses, the reasons parts of it look the way they do, and the names that have been given to particular features and landmarks. Most of the time though, I just construct it all in my head as I walk. I create a miniature personal mythology, which I project onto the landscape and this, in turn, helps to create me.