After yet another bold and risky expedition in the bitter cold, in an area I don’t know well hence fraught with errors and extemporaneous adaptation, and done without the warmth and security of an automobile, I’m forced to ask, why? I did need an item from a store the next state over, but could’ve easily waited another day and gotten a taxi instead, so is there something that renders it especially enjoyable? The very same question could be asked of the recent punishing Adirondack trip, and the preceding one up to Mount Washington in New Hampshire.

 

The answer is complex, but throughout those dark and unknown streets I realized, so much is money, wanting to get it done on my terms and with as little extraneous expenditure as possible. I suppose I just don’t love the stuff all that much, the sway it casts, the way people live and die off it, and these trips are an effort to show something beyond it, the raw potency of adventuring and exploration, enjoyment that doesn’t so hinge upon the almighty dollar, so hallowed, rarely sacred.

 

I got the goods from the store in adjacent southern Massachusetts, which themselves cost money and will be invaluable. But the memory of the trip itself, being perhaps the only person within fifty miles attempting such a thing in nighttime and rapidly worsening conditions, temperatures dropping, winds rising, chances of success dwindling by the minute and with each quarter mile farther from home, will be what stands out. People notice, stop and stare slack-jawed at intersections while the traffic light turns green, and are then beeped back to the road.

 

I may seek out these sort of things, thrive off them, as well as the incidental justification in writing. Surely a whole mess of people aren’t going to get it, yep tack more alienation onto the ungodly mass, more round dismissals as insanity and so on, so forth. It’s still making a statement, here’s something that’s entirely possible, and can be enjoyable as long as you prepare well. Besides, people and I don’t generally get along, it’s a whole lotta politics and nuanced social graces, plus flat-out amorality in pursuit of that money which mystically compels and sustains.

 

My recent post mentioned Mars plus mountaineering, likely to be very useful when we finally get there. Also too it’ll be cold, far colder than Earth, so pain tolerance will be a plus, as would thirst for raw exploration, so once again, looking ahead to the not-so-far future, I’m encouraging the reinvigoration and development of these skills and traits so that humans are more interested in, and better equipped for, far-frontier exploration.

 

If we lose our thirst for it, we’ll be stuck on Earth indefinitely, and nearly every corner of the planet has been explored, all great mountains climbed. So I have to ask, very bluntly, what exactly is the appeal of this? What is so great about spinning the wheels when we could be rocketing to an entirely new world where humans have never before set foot, where the opportunities will be transcendent, limitless?

 

We can prepare well for both Mars and the transit to and from, make it entirely worth the vast expenditure, make it so it’s extremely unlikely it’ll fail catastrophically, though that’ll always be a risk. It still seems far better to go for it, redirect money away from the standard pits and channels, towards something truly bold and risky and staggeringly worthwhile. After all, global warming continues by the day along with the status quo goto’s, more are born, more fuels are burned, and while bike travel may set a good example in this regard, the better strategy would be starting exploring other worlds, other options.

 

Even if it does fail catastrophically, the first Mars mission, at least we’ll have went for it, brightened the eyes and outlooks of virtually everyone on Earth, reinvigorated all sorts sprawling hopes and dreams, turned attentions away from beaten-path mundane and to greater things, much more interesting things, things we haven’t already seen and done countless times, places utterly new and unexplored.

 

Of course there are still major challenges, aside from radiation exposure and the unknown psychological impact of extreme isolation. Mainly it’s funding, putting together the likely hundreds of billions of dollars, sagaciously pooled such that no one need die for it. Personally it looks like something worth dying for although I may regret saying that, or at the very least, worth a lot of sacrifices to achieve. We’ve still got problems on Earth but this could be something that helps unite people, turn attentions away from saggy nationalism, vestigial imperialism and all sorts backwards-looking ideologies and truly towards the future, all humankind, all earthlings as one.

 

It’s true we could focus on the moon instead, for its resources, as there certainly is a wealth to be mined there, but if we’re still caught up in greedy infighting, how will it get divided and spent? We already have the materials and technological potential for a Mars mission, and if we never make it there, well, that’d be plain tragic. Let’s shift away from money and personal empires and more towards the imagination-igniting progress which this blog is all about. There is my two cents.