In years passed, adventure was something we reveled in, we aspired to, we recognized as important. Now days, those who do something adventurous are scolded when something goes astray.
(Things mustn’t go astray. Ever. Especially for this NYT writer.)
Things ALWAYS go astray. ESPECIALLY in adventure and science. It is the nature of the endeavor!
In the world of the adventurer things go wrong. Adventurers occasionally get lost. They get hungry. They over-estimage and under-estimage the challenges. They even get stuck in the ice. In the world of the adventurer, shit, as they say, happens.
“Of course the evacuation of the trapped ship, which will require helicopters given the impassible nature of the thick sea ice in the area, is vital. But when you consider the cost and risk attending the operation, and the impact on other science, this raises questions about the advisability of this voyage in the first place.”
In the new ‘handwringing’ wimp world, everything must go as planned. Things going wrong simply must not happen. Plan Plan Plan… and then work that plan, they say.
And yeah, that works well for business, but for nature and adventure… well… not so much. (It’s nature… and nature doesn’t necessarily play by the rules or recognize our plans as utmost in importance.)
“The leaders of the current expedition – Chris Turney, Chris Fogwill and Greg Mortimer — are seasoned field scientists. But the bungled trip now threatens to tarnish the wider field of Antarctic science. Particularly vexing is what seems to be a devil-may-care attitude expressed by some of those on the trapped ship.”
It’s ‘vexing’ to this handwringer that people on an adventure would actually be enjoying that adventure. That they may be working hard to figure out how to make shit happen instead of sitting by a cozy, warm, solar heater that was inspected by a team of government trained inspectors to insure its utmost safety and pounding away, gently, on their MBPro.
What is ‘vexing’ to me is how so many handwringers came to be in charge of shit. How did handwringers get to the place where they consider themselves the authority on adventure? Why do people who are not adventurous feel the need to be ‘vexed’ by those who are?
I would think this writer better suited for writing about dining in safe restaurants (ones with guards) and in ‘good’ neighborhoods, or about environmentally sound, and oh-so-safe toys for kids (the ones no kid wants to actually play with). The writer seems particularly lost as to the nature of an adventure, of an explore, or of something ironic going astray.
Much has been learned when ‘shit happens’. Less is ‘learned’ when the outcome is guaranteed.
I suspect his real angst is in the supposed mischief caused by this adventurous bunch toward the “real science” of Antarctic Climate Change. Is it real science if it must be protected from adventure and fun? If the science is real, and true, it will weather a few jokes, Mr Handwringer.
I hope in the new year we see more people willing to be adventurers and hear less from the handwringers… Adventurers get shit done. Handwringers care only about their own safe passage through life, staying on the pavement, coloring inside the lines, and holding on to the fantasy that the center of the universe is themselves.
While we are at it, perhaps we could bring back the Monkey Bars, and let kids play tag.
Maybe even keep score.