Seeing the the content of John Willey’s memoir on a map really puts his life in perspective. Reading names of places is one thing but seeing how far and often he actually traveled puts it all into perspective. It is amazing to think about the distance this man covered, especially when there were no cars at the time. It shows the dedication that John Willey had to the congregation and serving people. The first part of John Willey’s life was spent in England, which was a more established place compared to Northern Ireland at the time. Just reading the memoir I did not realize that part of his life was actually spent in England and he had to cross the British Isles to get to northern Ireland. I think it is fascinating to be able to see his travels on an actual map and really shows how complex his life is just like many people today. In the Bodenhamer reading, he writes, “We acknowledge hoe past, present, and future conceptions of the world compete simultaneously within real and imagined spaces. We see space as a platform for multiplicity, a realm where all perspectives are particular and dependent upon experience unique to an individual, a community, or a period of time” (14). When thinking of Northern Ireland I think of a gorgeous countryside that would be nice to visit at some point. For John Willey and the Moravians, they saw this as his home and a place where he felt responsible for helping the people there. To people that lived there a little after John Willey, it was a terrible place stricken by the potato famine and many people left. This is just an example of how complex a space can be depending on the time and perspective one has on it. Bodenhamer also talks about how space is usually ruled by power and references terms like “Mother nature” suggesting that humans have power over the land and how the feminine title gives off the impression that it is open to be explored and exploited. Thinking about this while looking at the memoir, it makes me think that people of the congregation really looked at Northern Ireland as a place that needed help which is why people like John Willey were sent there. I also think that the expansion of GIS in the humanities would be amazing. Bodenhamer talks about the possibility of being able to walk through a virtual ancient Rome, and applying this to other places could really open new doors for the humanities.
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Jacob Hubbard is a sophomore at Bucknell University, and is from San Francisco, CA.
