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Some brief updates today:
- a new link to another Polie, our winter-over Power Plant Technician, Tim. Writing and videos from the perspective of a new Antarctican. Tim is also a member of our Fire Brigade. Look to the left for the link.
- a couple more photos were added to round two below. Some shots of the interior of the Cargo office and a sample of a scruffy, bearded Nate.
Late night, post movies with friends. The end of a swing shift day, slowly moving from the station to home at five in the morning. Gather up momentum, and find the way to your cold weather gear from the lounge. Notice the station waking up for day shift, construction managers already leaving their morning meeting. Get dressed, drop your goggles over your eyes, and step outside into the air.
Fill your lungs, your mind waking up at the in-rush of cold oxygen. Equipment operators are starting up their dozers and cranes, prepping them to warm during breakfast. Step down the stairs of Destination Zulu as a snowmobile darts past. The bracket-bracket-bracket of bulldozer tracks echos past ears and vibrates feet as you tread across the snow to Summercamp.
The sun, as always, is up.
Step in the door to J-9, quiet-like, and push through the dark, finding your room door by touch. Eyes adjust later. Two coats are removed, boots and liners come off, layer after layer drops. Wrap in a blanket, power up the computer, and sit back to ponder the world, life, and all the aspects of it.
Think of responsibility and obligation, of lessons that life offers, regardless of the contexts that you choose. Think of leaving behind disliked situations that carry lessons of responsibility toward others, and find similar lessons in new environments.
Smile at the breath of air that gathers from another person entering the Jamesway, fresh and cool, carried by winds across a desert virtually untouched save the blowing ice crystals.
Wonder what you have left behind, but ponder at the deep contentment that you feel for your present. Settle in to communication and what you can do versus what you want to. Realize that life carries such universal similarities because you are always looking at situations from your perspective. The context changes, the view does not.
Or it can, should we choose.
And what of those who push to change their view, what of those who are pushed until they have no choice?
Perspective, all perspective…
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I watched several episodes of “Band of Brothers” tonight, and came away thinking on the level of sacrifice, obligation, and sheer terror that the men of Easy Company went through. Thought of the larger picture, of the fact that it was young men, differing likely by only language and culture (maybe only a generation or two of history) killing each other at the behest of other men. Caught on the realization that all they had was each other, all they had to trust, to understand, to hold steady in a world gone mad.
That for those who go to war.
And here, so far removed from the story based on truth of Easy Company, are we so different in relying on each other? Certainly we are more relaxed, with our day to day lives not so terrifyingly at risk. We are allowed the energy and time to see greys, to find subtlety in black and white, to think before responding (if we so choose to utilize that luxury). We cannot immediately leave and find a new place, cannot escape those we do not like, cannot easily take a break when needed. And so we hold, to those we share this life with. We share the context, share the struggle, and share the knowledge of the life we lead, all without having to state it directly.
A far cry from those who fought and risked all at Bastogne, but we learn, we grow, and we trust.
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We are responsible for each other here, so much more so when the winter begins. We start in the state of obligation, but we grow to respect and realize it.
Some more photos from Antarctica for your perusal. On tap are aspects of my daily job as a Cargo Handler (Cargler or Cargoid, down here) and some bits from Thanksgiving. When next I get a chance, I’ll see if I can’t wrangle up so photos from our recent fire drill and from the archives of previous Antarctic shindigs.
You’ll find the new photos in this album (there are some from last week here too):
Or, since I forgot that I already had the archives, here they are:
And since I’m in the mood for nostalgia, some other links as well:
Slacklinging over Lake Superior - photos by Nick Salava.
Training for MCC, crew leader mayhem, circa 2005.
Life with my summer crews in MCC, circa 2005 - Isle Royale and the BWCA.
Random photos collected from a life.
Exploring the ice of Superior.
Some have comments, some don’t. I take all questions and indignant looks offered!
Obligation is an interesting emotion to note. In particular, why do we feel it toward others, toward other things? What leads one to feel it toward external aspects before feeling it toward oneself?
Can we control obligation? What does it take to become aware of our actions in its context?
Intriguing questions for to-be-pondered answers…
I’ve added comments to the photos in the links below. They catch the story up to my arrival at the South Pole on October 26. At this point, then, I’m about a month behind.
Our Emergency Response team training is calming down, so I hope to close the gap soon (as my free time is increasing).
If my entries for the past couple of weeks seem sparse, I blame it on the internet. Our satellite connection here at the South Pole is limited. Speed is okay, but we only have connectivity to the outside world for a brief window each day when the satellites we use bounce above the horizon line just long enough for us to send and receive signals from them.
Unfortunately, the current satellite window falls precisely within the hours that I sleep. Fortunately, the window changes a little bit every day (four minutes earlier) so very soon the connection will start up before I go to bed. Then, updates!
As for now, some good news. I’ve fixed the links to pictures below so that those of you not on Facebook can see them. Mistake on my part - sorry for the error. Hopefully (as the satellites improve) I’ll get some comments added to the photographs as well. Also, I’ve added a couple of links to other Antarcticans who are writing - some of them much more frequently than I. Ethan the Good is one of our science technicians and a fellow with me on our emergency response teams - he’s in charge of the fire brigade. Neal the Action Nerd is also one of our science techs but since he just finished a winter here he may not be updating his website until he gets back in February. Finally, the South Pole News link heads to a website kept up by a former Polie, Bill Spindler. There are links to further information, current news, and archived history galore at his site.