Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Iditarod Invitational

Something for us to contemplate as we sit in our comfy chairs, waiting for conditions to improve enough that we can get outside and ride again.
The New York Times offers some coverage (here) of a training camp for a few hardy souls for whom conditions don't seem to matter as much.

1 Comments:

Blogger raresparky said...

What is it about these types of extreme endeavors that so fascinates us?

I'm reminded of the Race Across America rider whose neck was so strained from holding a craned position hours and days on end, that he could no longer hold his head up. A brace was fashioned to support his head and allow him to continue.

Or the mountain climber who amputated his own arm after a fall entrapped him in a rocky crevasse.

Are we drawn to witness these feats like we're drawn to view a car wreck we pass on a highway with morbid fascination?

Or do we hope to witness something noble in the human spirit straining to overcome seemingly impossible challenges?

I appreciated the married couple who engineered their own equipment with which to attempt to meet the challenge. But with five children in their family, surely their decision to compete would involve their considerations of their responsibilities to nurture and guide those children through to adulthood.

Sure, I've heard the argument about the role that being a parental model of courage and endurance plays in a child's development and those of setting goals and accepting great challenges, regardless the outcome.

But what greater courage and challenge is there than limiting one's desires to provide the space in one's life to help a child with THEIR daily challenges, struggles and triumphs?

I appreciated the sensibility, and yes, courage that the couple displayed in bailing out of the event after experiencing extreme difficulties with the cold, prior to the event's start. This, after all of the, no doubt considerable expense and effort involved in even organizing for an attempt.

Now THERE'S a triumph of the human spirit!

December 25, 2008 at 10:07 AM  

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