Mainland Habitat

From the stark to the stark, one barren another overpopulated. The air is misty with condensation here and the lake, expansive, is unfrozen except in stilled water of empty dockyards. I have no pictures to show yet, not of Chicago, but the intermediate stop in New Zealand presented plenty of photo opportunity, all those locked away on my hard drive to appear some other evening.

People are generally as friendly, as handsome, as funny, as curious, as stolid as I remember them. No wonderful jobs have fallen in my lap, but that is not the way wonderful jobs are attained.

As the experience distances, my reflection on Antarctica develops a stronger nostalgia and grows in fondness, like a cactus left to blossom. I think less of the oddly isolated community, the moribund mores; I think more of the exotic harshness, the unique opportunity, the relinquishment of responsibility. I wonder: if we could all see the continent, traverse an empty ice shelf, would it make us different people? Better people?

There is no reason to let a living blog die by the wayside. There is no reason to hate the wolf for killing the sheep, that is the nature of the wolf, as the scorpion must sting the fox. There is no reason to hate the blogger for doing what he does. That is blog.

It is good to be back.