which mother<\/a> trained in the freezer to prepare herself for her trip to the Pole.<\/p>\nAlthough such brave adventurers reap the benefits of modern technology (Felicity Aston<\/strong>, for example, is keeping her followers abreast of her progress via Twitter), such bravery at the ends of the earth isn\u2019t new.<\/p>\nPolar history is rife with stories of heroism and courage.\u00a0 Being one of the more formidable places on earth, how could it not be?\u00a0 The mean annual temperature in Antarctica<\/strong> is -70F .\u00a0 The average wind speeds are measured on three levels\u2013below -100 and above -75.\u00a0 The continent boasts almost no vegetation and only a few species of wildlife, most of which inhabit only the coastal areas.\u00a0 Any person crazy enough to venture there has to be made of extraordinary grit.<\/p>\nToday, with all eyes on the Pole, I turn my own attention to those who went before the Gortex and Northface-clad folk who follow a well-marked path with plenty of hot-cocoa breaks along the way.\u00a0 I think of Byrd, wintering alone in an underground shack, who was almost killed by a carbon monoxide leak in his stove\u2019s chimney.\u00a0 I think of the men sleeping on shifting seas when the ground cracked open, dropping one unsuspecting crew member into the open ocean.\u00a0 I think of Ernest Shackleton<\/strong> who, without hesitation, reached down into the frigid water and pulled the man (sleeping bag and all) out of the frigid water just before the ice slammed back together again.\u00a0 I think of men sleeping in the bowels of a tiny boat, in nothing more than a wet (and disintegrating) fur sleeping bag, hoping beyond hope to find a tiny speck of an island in a huge freezing ocean, the only hope of saving the sailors they\u2019d left behind on the mainland, praying for rescue.<\/p>\nHave you ever wondered how people with such pluck got to the point where they were able to pull off such almost-inhuman feats?\u00a0 I do, and sitting on the couch watching Hogan\u2019s Heroes <\/strong>reruns ain\u2019t it.\u00a0 We\u2019re spoiled in this day, thinking that if Pizza Hut takes more than three rings to pick up their phones, we\u2019re being deprived.\u00a0 It makes me wonder how the explorers of tomorrow are living their lives today.\u00a0 Do they sit in 71-degree rooms waiting for their mothers to deliver their mac and cheese or are they outside, facing the elements, working a callous or two into their fingers?\u00a0 Do our kids know how to do without?\u00a0 Do our children have what it takes to go through extreme discomfort if their life\u2019s pursuits (or life\u2019s curveballs) require such a thing?\u00a0 Who is raising today tomorrow\u2019s men (and women) of grit?<\/p>\nI hope I am.\u00a0 And I hope you are, too.\u00a0 Giving our children a comfortable life is well and good, but reading about those who, amid terrible suffering, conquered the hinter parts of the world, I\u2019m convinced a comfortable life is not all we need to give our children.\u00a0 Since we never know when our children (or we ourselves, for that matter) are going to need some inner fortitude in order to survive, we would be wise to give them opportunities where they are forced to try to find\u2013or develop\u2013some.<\/p>\n
Which reminds me, I\u2019ve got to go get the beasts off the couch, turn down the heat, and have somebody cook us something over an open fire.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Today marks the 100th anniversary of Roald Amundsen becoming the first person to reach the South Pole. Arriving on December 14, 1911, he beat British explorer, Robert Falcon Scott, by a month, but the value of his accomplishment is, to this day, hotly disputed.\u00a0 Sure, Amundsen got to the pole first, say the Brits, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":73,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[34,38,36,35,32,37,33],"class_list":["post-89","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-100th-south-pole-anniversary","tag-antarctica","tag-ernest-shackleton","tag-grit","tag-roald-amundsen","tag-robert-scott","tag-south-pole-anniversary"],"yoast_head":"\n
Growing Men (and Women) of Grit<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Today marks the 100th anniversary of Roald Amundsen becoming the first person to reach the South Pole. Arriving on December 14, 1911, he beat British\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wholemama\/2011\/12\/growing-men-and-women-of-grit\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Growing Men (and Women) of Grit\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Today marks the 100th anniversary of Roald Amundsen becoming the first person to reach the South Pole. 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