Now that we have officially outlawed war, banned war and made war illegal on the continent of Antarctica, now we only have six more continents to go.
What ever became of all those high-sounding human ideals that we all used brag about — such as religious morality, Thou shalt not Kill, turning swords into plowshares, Democracy, the stuff that they taught us in kindergarten about sharing and/or “Peace in Our Time”? What ever happened to the freaking United Nations’s ideals?
All empty promises, apparently — except in Antarctica.
If in order to get a little peace in this world, we have to drop the temperatures all over the planet to 10 degrees below zero then, hey, bring it on! Perhaps after the blizzards in New Jersey this year, then Peace may actually be possible, eh?
In any case, I did manage to survive the dread Drake Passage on my way to Antarctica this week — but just barely. The only sure cure for seasicknes I could find was to keep my eyes closed as much as possible — so I stared at the back of my eyelids for 48 hours and only puked three or four times. And then our ship entered the land of enchantment:
And now there came both mist and snow; And it grew wondrous cold: And ice, mast high, came floating by, As green as emerald.
And now my feet are cold as ice cubes, but Antarctica’s intense beauty has warmed up my soul.
PS: It turns out that there actually IS limited wi-fi available in Antarctica — but it’s really expensive.
PPS: How about those penguins? They have NO fear of humans, none at all. Plus I took an actual photo of my boot so that I could actually prove that I really did set foot on the seventh continent today. Plus I have approximately 50 penguin witnesses to this event and they will all gladly testify to that fact on my behalf.
PPPS: If there is one thing that I have learned from the Tunisians and the Egyptians and the penguins recently, it’s this: That if enough of us want peace badly enough, then peace really IS possible.