ENDURANCE

Dearest Danda - I just finished reading some 700 pages of SHACKLETON by Roland Huntford. I have wallowed in many accounts of Sir Ernest's incredible adventures, and I marvel at his singular focus and tenacity. He was a man of many facets, not all perfect. The book is a remarkably well-researched portrait of the diamond-bright makeup of the man. It is safe to say that his accomplishments were mind-boggling! When his ship was crushed in the Antarctic, he was forced to go overland and then by sea, leaving some of his compliment ashore on Elephant island with the sure and certain admonition that they would be rescued; then setting sail in a 22ft boat with a small group through gales and sleet and snow and ice to a rocky beachhead on S. Georgia Island, thence, as a party of three, on makeshift snowshoes, heading over ragged, icy mountains to a whaling station that they knew existed but had no maps to guide their course, he believed he would survive along with all his men. My God, what a feat!

Perhaps, it would be fair to assume that more than luck and bravado played a hand in his ultimate success. In his book called SOUTH he writes,

I have no doubt that Providence guided us, not only across the snowfields, but across the storm-white sea that separated Elephant Island from our landing place on South Georgia. I know that during that long and racking march of 36 hours over the unamed mountains and glaciers of South Georgia it seemed to me often that we were four not three.

He further writes that Worsley, one of his team, also said "Boss, I had a curious feeling on the march that there was another person with us".

Crean, the third member of the party, confessed to the same idea.

At this special Easter time, I think one might hope that there may indeed be a "second" person guiding you through your journey. I believe there is.