Areas of Unrest

15 November 2000 - Away to the Land of Ice and Snow

QOTD: "The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." - Martin Luther King, Jr.

Reading: a thick anthology of personal essays is in my daypack, but I'm too lazy to get it out to quote the exact title and author

Listening to: Moxy Fruvous, Bargainville

I'm off to Manitoba tonight, so I've took the day off to run errands. Even though this is a relatively short trip (by my standards), I hate going away with my place in complete disarray. Things are still somewhat chaotic since I wasn't going to get years worth of clutter vanquished in mere hours. But I made a major dent. And I got money and managed to get through leaving a mail hold at the post office without being assaulted by any loonies this time. (I swear that all mental hospitals discharge their marginally cured patients directly into the lobby of my post office. This time there was one person who appeared to be trying to arrange her hair in a manner suitable for an intergalactic beauty contest, but she confined this activity to her car, so it was okay.) Now I'm down to fussing around my apartment and worrying about the adequacy of my socks.

My boss is taking vacation next week, too, but staying in California. Another of my colleagues is taking off to Cancun. Only I am insane enough to go to the sub-Arctic in November. The bears had better be at their most photogenic. (I will never forgive a particular lion at the Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania who posed most extravagantly. Alas, he chose to do so against the unlovely setting of the tire tracks from our landrover.) And some clear skies to see the aurora borealis would be a major bonus, too.

What I really wanted to comment on was the reactions I get from a lot of people to my travels. I keep having to explain to people that it's simply a matter of setting priorities. For example, when I was telling my mother about this trip, I found out that she has always wanted to ride on a dogsled. It happens that there are dogsled rides at ski areas less than a day's drive from where she lives. (And there is at least one area reachable by train if she doesn't want to drive in the snow). I would at least be calling for brochures and finding out what's involved, but she just fantasizes and doesn't do anything about it. She's hardly unusual in this respect.

And I just have to say, I don't get it. If you really want to do something, why not find a way to do it, instead of just talking? I can understand keeping it to fantasy if it's something really beyond your capabilities (e.g. climbing Everest or owning a van Gogh or the like), but half the time people are telling me things like how much they've always wanted to go to New Zealand. And when I say, "so buy a plane ticket and go" they look at me like I'm from another planet.