Kindred spirits at the opposite poles

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This was actually written during the season on the Ice. I was station manager at Palmer Station, Antarctica. The guy who wrote it had graduate degrees in Physics and Philosophy, but was working there as a carpenter! He went into fits of hysterical laughter when I, in passing, one afternoon just casually commented your quotation: “All this inertia is getting me nowhere.” -- Mike Rentel

ANTARCTIC PEOPLE It takes a special kind of fool To leave a home and job, or school And pack a bag and grab a plane And leave behind the 'safe and sane' To go somewhere remote as Mars With no McDonald's, T.V., or cars No Exxon stations, no Pizza Huts, No 7-11's - you'd have to be nuts! To cast one's lot with a gang of freaks Misfits, outcasts, grouches and geeks Collectors of rocks, of eggs, of scales Sewer repairmen, benders of nails Far-fetched minds from far-flung places Wild lights in their eyes, strange knots in their laces Strange tastes in music, strange tastes in food Strange hair; strange clothing; good God, what a brood! What fool wants to go where those maniacs are? Each one a stranger, each stranger bizarre Who'd leave behind all that's comfortably known For a place without streetlights, police, or ozone? A fool, perhaps, with the mind of a child Alert and curious, friendly and wild Foolishly tickled to witness a dawn Delighted when two other fools sing a song Or perhaps a fool with a cynical bent Who scoffed at society, got up and went Broke off and ran from what others hold dear Went as far as one can - and washed ashore here Or it could be a fool of Columbus's mold Miraculous worlds to seek and behold More faith in tomorrow than any 'today' No 'here' as delightful as getting away Fools? Perhaps; but special past doubt Children and sceptics from the wide world about Gathered by chances as random as dice And sent to this 'home for the way-weird': the Ice And here to be tortured, ignored, and distressed And find in each other the strength for the test And find in these fools the best friends they've known And see in themselves a fool of their own So they bond together in a blissful way Hopeful fools in their world for a day As a part-time tribe, a fore-doomed race Good friends? Total strangers? Both at once - what a place

Jim 'Thumper' Porter 24 February 1989 Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, Antarctica