Thought for the Year

2007 was a huge year of challenge, and of growth for me. Perhaps rather tellingly, it was also the first year since 2003 that I haven't been on an Arctic expedition, and all that time in London (and in executive lounges, business class flights and swanky hotels) seems to have skewed my thinking a bit; my first stab at a list of goals for this year looked more like a to-buy list than a to-do list.

Luckily a brief New Year's blast of fresh air and suffering from a training trip spent hammering over the Brecon Beacons in Wales seems to have fixed things, along with a pertinent quotation from one of my favourite books of 2007, Feet in the Clouds by Richard Askwith (Amazon UK, Amazon US) that reminded me of one the joys of expedition life:

"We are richer now, but more overworked, more deeply in thrall to the addictions of getting and spending. We have more possessions, and they tyrannise us. Each new mod con must be shopped for, maintained, insured, upgraded; each new thing must be stored, kept track of, kept secure, tidied; and the whole package is paid for in overwork, time-poverty, round-the-clock availability and round-the-clock insecurity.

We have more, and we have less. In such a world, freedom is both more precious and more elusive than ever. And one of the few surefire ways of liberating ourselves from the tyranny of the consumer society is to put ourselves beyond its reach."

Elsewhere, I'm interviewed in the current issue of The Economists's Intelligent Life magazine. North Pole: ten weeks and counting. Lots to do…

— Filed under Inspiration, Rumination