There are 60 soccer matches on television today. Actually there are more, but I only have access to sixty. Additionally the U.S. college football season starts with a game between Notre Dame and Navy played in Dublin, Ireland, and the U.S. and the International finals in the Little League World Series are played this afternoon. I am going to be busy.
The second half of JOURNEY is less interesting than the first and is, as are all general histories, bottom heavy toward recent events and fads before time winnows them. The last tenth of the book covers the past eighty years, disproportionate I think for a journey that begins 5,000 years ago. Here, however, are a few things I found of interest in the last half of JOURNEY.
Of the bicycle, which came into mass popularity toward the end of the 19th Century:
Of camping which also became popular about 1900;
Of immigration: “In the 1880s alone nine percent of the total population of Norway immigrated to the United States.”
And here is a photo of Mulberry Street in New York City’s Little Italy in 1900.
The authors of JOURNEY write mindlessly of ‘conquering’ nature and of ‘adventure’. If you have been reading here a while you know that I understand we do not conquer mountains or oceans or deserts or ice, we merely transit them, and you know that I consider adventure to be avoided.
Here is an except about climbing Everest.
Now you will have to excuse me. I have fifty-seven and a half more soccer games to watch.
7 comments:
A man who spends month's in the natural ocean, becomes more natural.
I imagine technology such as GPS and access to improved weather forecasts are the fixed ropes and ladders of rounding Cape Horn...
I do not remotely agree, Mark.
When I first rounded Cape Horn in 1975 I navigated by sextant and had no sun sights for several days before. I did get a single compromised sight one afternoon and trusted it enough to turn east. That was a life or death decision.
Even now there is no equivalent of sailing alone around Cape Horn to climbing Everest. By definition you cannot pay someone to sail you alone around Cape Horn. You can pay tens of thousands of dollars to haul your sorry ass up Everest with ladders and hopes installed by pourer and better men than you.
If you do not see the difference, Mark, I cannot help you, but you are blind.
I note that in the above autofill made 'ropes' into 'hopes'. I regret not catching that, but as I have long known my mind sees what it expects I have written rather than is actually on the page or screen.
Also, ‘pourer’ should be ‘poorer’.
I totally agree with Mark on this one. His analogy is sound.
You said yourself that due to your basic equipment - basic by today’s standards - that it was a challenge to navigate due to lack of sun sights and having only one compromised sight. With today’s GPS technology and much more detailed and accurate weather forecasts, one can help mitigate the risk. Just as having ropes and ladders installed at Everest reduces the risks versus setting ropes yourself. And the psychological effects of climbing any 8,000+ meter mountain are far more impactful and dangerous to the body than sailing a boat at sea level is.
Finally, exposing your righteousness and resorting to calling someone blind for expressing their opinion is poor form. I thought you were better than that.
Perhaps a sail is in order to let off some steam.
GPS provides more accurate position. It does not make sailing alone around Cape Horn or enduring Force 12 easier. Of improved weather forecasting, I have by choice no access to it at sea. That fixed ropes and ladders making reaching the top of Mt. Everest easier is clear from the dramatic increase in summits noted in the piece from JOURNEY. I just googled ‘How many have sailed alone around Cape Horn.’ If accurate, the number appears to be about 300. Not many more than summited Everest in one day. I do not believe there is any comparison between the accomplishment of doing so and being led up fixed ropes and ladders and as shown in a now notorious photograph, standing in a long line before getting your turn to summit, or that GPS and improved weather forecasting are the equivalent of fixed ropes and ladders and guides and sherpas to haul you and your provisions to base camp.
However, I do agree that my comment ‘you are blind’ is intemperate, as is Anonymous’s last sentence, and I apologize.
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