Loving Some More

“Between stimulus and response there is a space.  In that space is our power to choose our response.  In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”   -Victor Frankl
There was a time I considered applying to work in Antarctica. I'd been traveling in New Zealand where I met a bunch of people who'd been working on Earth's southernmost continent. Part of the deal of working there for half the year was a return ticket anywhere between the Antarctic science base and the rest of the world. Post Antarctic-living, New Zealand, Australia and South America were popular way stations. It seemed like a cool deal.
What the hell were you thinking? You might ask, to want to check out nearly as much as possible to spend 6 months working in one of the remotest coldest, parts of the planet. It's likely not hard to surmise I was pretty disappointed with humanity and myself at the time. Having gone through a nasty divorce and its subsequent fall-out, I was in a nothing-to-lose time, that was at once hellish and liberating.
But I didn't go work in Antarctica.  Job placements like that require stability, as well as curiosity, good attention and a will for it all, not exactly what I then exhibiting. Instead I headed back to California to work on getting real about who I was and where I came from, rather than running as far away as possible (though of course I did more of that, too, just not so far).
I remembered my Antarctic considerations this week while reading the chaotic and troubling news of the world near and far. My old desire to check out starts to rear its head. But while running away from things doesn't add to the problem but it doesn't solve anything either. I know now change is always possible, if not easy, and generally better than the alternative.