Memoirous

The Impossible First Colin O'Brady Scribner January 2929  In the book The Impossible First, Colin O’Brady suffered from the cold, infinite whiteouts, and the startk loneliness. And, that was the everyday stuff. One day in particular was hard enough that he thought he might quit. His wife surprised him by arranging a call between Colin and the singer Paul Simon. Like O’Brady, I’m a fan of the Graceland album. I love in particular the conversational tone to the lyrics, as if we’ve been invited into his RV to hear him perform some new material. Simon for his part during the call was intrigued by O’Brady’s journey across Antarctica. He related that making art “is a process.” Much like O’Brady in the harness for 12 hours to achieve sometimes only 12 miles a day, the process is one step at a time, one word, or lyric, effort, attempts. It doesn’t seem like we’re making progress, but we are. I enrolled in Story Studio’s Novel-in-a-Year program withJames Klise . We’re working the proces...

Impossible First Colin O''Brady Scribner January 2020 I wrote earlier about the book The Impossible First by Colin O’Brady who wrote an account of his traverse across Antarctica in 2018. In the book he talks about a particularly hard day where he only made 3 miles. I had a similar situation on my Lewis & Clark bike tour last summer (—though to be perfectly clear it was no Antarctica). I had a day where I only made it 9 miles before the weather or threat of hypothermia shut me down. The day before had been beautiful following the Missouri River out of Great Falls into narrow canyons and the hush of high altitude birds gliding along. All day I was amazed by the ease of pedaling while knowing the Continental Divide was just around the corner. That evening I came into Wolf Creek, MT and looked for a campground or park, some place to pitch a tent. 1) the campground on Google maps wasn’t there and it all seemed kind of sketchy. There were old motels and gas stations boarded up li...

The Impossible First Colin O’Brady Scribner January 2020 Readers of this blog, both of you, and friends know that I love all things Artic or, the polar opposite, Antartic. Growing up I read journals and autobiographies of polar explorers. There must have been some curiosity already developing within me of what it means to live on the edge of extremes. It seems I have been walking that tightrope ever since. The Impossible First was an ALA youth recommended book= Alex Awards for the 10 best adult books that appeal to teen audiences. Colin O’Brady is a 30 year old guy from Portland, OR, a child of the Pacific Northwest. He was probably hyperactive and in the acknowledgements gives credit to his first grade teacher for putting up with him. If he got too busy she’d tell him to go outside and run off some of his energy. He excelled at swimming and competed for Yale University. Afterwards he traveled and was in an accident in Thailand leaving him critically mobility compromised. He had to ove...