Tag Archives: Polar region

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Life with a Nonagenarian

The Nonagenarian at Rest

The Nonagenarian at rest on a deck in Muskoka

I have given thought to changing the name of my blog, because, although I am still passionate about the polar regions, travel and theatre, taking care of my nonagenarian curtails my personal activities. A statement of fact, not a whine, I stress. I haven’t made the change, because inevitably, my life will return to what it once was. That will be a sad day indeed.

Today reminded me of that inevitability. Once a month a friend comes to visit. That is a big event in a nonagenarian’s life. Most of her friends are no longer with us, and of the ones that are, today’s friend, unlike the others, lives nearby. I do whatever I can to facilitate social opportunities with her peers. Sometimes one just has to talk to someone who gets it. I certainly don’t.

The day began with the last minute scurry to ensure everything is in place for the luncheon my Nonagenarian was hosting. I chivvied her to get dressed earlier than normal in her daily routine. About an hour before the guest arrived and a few minutes before my departure, (I always leave them to chat in private), she toddled into the kitchen attired for a tea party . “What is all this in aid of” was her question. The coming visit had slipped her mind completely, although 30 minutes before she could have told me what was for lunch and who was coming.

That slip of short term memory has been increasing. More and more, I have to remind her of something we talked about only a few minutes before. She remembers her childhood and the trauma of WWII vividly, but that she was having company for lunch today, that was a blank. She is aware of her befuddlement. She is afraid of it, and embarrassed by it, and I am guilty of exacerbating her anxiety.

I hate that I am as much a part of the problem as I am a solution to the problem. I do not want to be THAT person, oblivious and short-tempered. Just as she doesn’t want to be THAT person – befuddled and confused.

Well-meaning folk suggest that it is time for her to enter a home. Her doctor thinks she is better off with me than the alternative, despite my short-comings. I believe she is too. The day I surrender her to the care of others will be a black day indeed. Don’t get me wrong, I know that in the future a home may be the best way to care for her. I expect there will come a time that my siblings and I will agree she needs more than I can give her. May that day be far off.

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Coming to terms with the North and South Polar Regions

English: Arctic Ocean, submarine features Fran...

Image via Wikipedia

A friend of mine was recently interviewed by a major UK paper. She posted a link to the article with an unnecessary apology for the inaccurate headline that used the terms North Pole and South Pole as synonyms for the Arctic and Antarctica. As an interview subject, Sue Flood has no control over a headline.

To those  involved in the business of polar travel that headline reflects one of the marketing challenges faced in a world of Search Engine Optimization and keyword content. Polar professionals use the terms North Pole and South Pole to refer only to invisible points on the planet at 90N or 90S. To use the terms as synonyms for the generic but accurate Arctic and Antarctica is tantamount to a sin. Using the terms inaccurately is the sign of an outsider, an amateur, a dilettante. No one mistakes Sue Flood for an amateur. She has the ice creds to call herself a polar professional.

Yet…the amateur is the person marketers of polar product want to capture. If amateurs refer to the polar regions by inaccurate terms, then the online content must include the terms with which people search for polar travel information. I came to terms with that conundrum by writing an article about inaccurate terms used by people when referring to the Polar Regions. I thought of it as an educational piece for seekers of information, and a clever way to ensure my former employer’s polar professionalism was not eroded.

When we insert keywords into a search field, for the most part, we do not worry about syntax or spelling. We insert keywords or phrases in a kind of stream of consciousness. Just use Google Insight for Search and take a look at how people search for your favourite subject. For example – more people search for Antarctica using the adjective Antarctic than the noun. The latter is part of the former, so the problem may be minor, but the point is the same: Writing for keyword content if you use search data undermines the English language and that irks me.

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Say Awe

I read in the National Post this morning that a researcher has concluded that social networking in the 21st Century is no different from the social networking of prehistoric humankind. Our best and worst impulses manifest themselves when we are members of a virtual group or a tribe. I am not surprised. We think with the most primitive part of our brain first. The fact we act in a primitive manner makes sense. Evolution has been limited to the superficial not the activities that really count.

English: Panorama - penguin colonies, cruise s...

Image via Wikipedia

There is a more fundamental reason why I am not surprised: My experiences in Antarctica and the Arctic. When faced with the overwhelming forces of nature, unfettered by telephone lines and billboards, I felt awe. True awe: “an overwhelming feeling of reverence, admiration, fear, etc., produced by that which is grand, sublime, extremely powerful, or the like.”

As I stood on Petermann Island feeling like Eve in the Garden of Eden, I believed I understood why the first humans began to worship spirits in inanimate as well as animate objects. I felt puny in the grand scheme of things; yet connected like a brick in a wall, strengthened by my inclusion in a greater entity, but aware that alone I was essentially worthless. They were primitive, basic feelings and I was in awe.

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100 Years Ago: Extreme Disappointment

Scott memorial window, Binton, panel 4 (detail...

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Robert Falcon Scott and four companions reached the South Pole 100 years ago today. The goal of that British expedition team was to be the first in history to reach the bottom of the world. They failed by five weeks.

The team rested. Scott wrote of his disappointment in his journal. Then they began what became a death march. A month later the team was one man down. Two months later all lives were lost.

The five died for the glory of King, Country and Science…and in the manner of Greek Tragedy – for personal loyalty. Not quite a band of brothers – Scott was a stickler when it came to rank and class – they shared a common purpose.

Scott became a national hero, lionized in press and film. His companions became mythic heroes, whose names were conjured when examples of selflessness were required during dark and difficult times.

In a twist that has fascinated me for a lifetime, the man who became the first to reach the South Pole, became a footnote in British history books, overshadowed by Scott in the English-speaking world.

Captain Scott’s accrued accomplishments should outweigh his one, dramatic, tragic and complete failure. They should, but that has never been the case. His expeditions to the south polar region contributed greatly to science, art and photography. Let’s spend the next 100 years celebrating that, not his deadly hubris.

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Polar Poetry – Day Three

This is my third day researching polar poetry, and a third day to be amazed at how much there is.

Peter Noble used poetry to recount his experience at a British Antarctic Survey station. Susan Richardson and Siobhan Logan capture their love of the Arctic with poetry. Col. Ron Smith’s residence in Antarctica inspired him to write poetry.

Canada’s great poet, Al Purdy, wrote a poem about the Dorset, the ancestors of our Inuit peoples. How did I not know this?