Physician and author Abraham Verghese (Cutting for Stone) said: “Geography is destiny.”

I’ve just been studying a map of southern Asia, reminding myself of how Afghanistan is situated and who shares its borders. It brought the Verghese quote to mind. Afghanistan’s tragic destiny seems to be playing out again now as a consequence of its geography.

I spent a long time one night scrolling all around a map of Russia, an unimaginably immense area that is 74% larger than the U.S., even reduced as it is from the size of the U.S.S.R., and wondering yet again how anyone could possibly have the audacity to try to govern that whole business. It’s no wonder the last czar lost his grip. China’s land mass is very close to that of the U.S., and it too looks oppressively enormous in the span of Asia.

Another night I scrolled back and forth and up and down over the many strands and reaches of the routes collectively known as the Silk Road. Then I Googled some of the exotic names that appeared and studied the photos, trying to glimpse and imagine what life could be like there.

And then I might pick a small region of coastal Britain and just zero in on the villages and landscapes and shoreline. Sometimes those visits feel more like traversing time than space.

Now and then I also take a Google Streetview tour of, say, Amsterdam or Mexico City, traveling major thoroughfares and peering down alleys.

These imaginary journeys are fascinating and can sometimes keep me in thrall for hours.

Does anybody else around here visit maps and images of foreign places in this way? And if so, what do your virtual travels mean to you?

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Note, this is not meant to be an invitation to hammer on American politics. Even though this question is in Social, let’s not take it there.

Topics: geography, maps, Russia, Afghanistan, China, countries, Asia, destiny, globe, regions of the world, virtual travel