Saquib Mehmood's Blog
I am the least likely person to write a few words about myself, not because I am overly secretive about my great life, but because I am simply lazy. It's an effort to think up good things to write about oneself so I will instead stick with the truth. I believe in evolution not creation, I believe in reason not in the mindless ramblings of some unknown god, I think love trumps reason, I believe that humanity has come far beyond all that was good and beautiful in this world and what is left behind is the foul stench of accumulated sweat formed by a thousand millennia of wasted effort, I believe 'hope' and 'goodness' are words used by aliens probably while having forbidden sex on their far off planets, I think "love" is a dark ritual performed by some lost tribe in Amazon and people will do everything in their power to prevent it from infiltrating into the heart of their rotten civilization, I think people will kill you for thinking differently, I believe that eccentrics are the best hope for humanity and arrogance is the only way of dealing with fools, I believe that when the time comes calling one should stand up and fight and fall and stand up and fight again till there is nothing left, I believe that one should not be scared of death and calamity and adversity as they seek the one who is afraid, I believe that 'prudence' is a refuge of sycophants who are afraid of the consequences of honesty, and yes I dream that one day I will take off on a space ship to some far off galaxy and will never turn back...
I would have sympathised more with Bryson's cause, had he not decided to skip a few hundred miles along a difficult portion of the trail, only because he did not feel like doing it. Despite that, he decided to cast himself as the hero of the piece while poor Katz remains a comfortable second fiddle, most often an object of mirth and Bryson's ridicule. But this is not what heroes do! They do not avoid adversity. There are only two alternates for a hero: to embrace adversity and in doing so overcome it or perish in the effort. That is it, there is no third choice. Heroes pick up their swords and fight their inner demons and the monsters that threaten them from outside - in the mountains, in oceans, in deserts, in cities, in plains, and those who gaze at them from the abyss. They don't cry and whine like babies and lust after juicy steaks and delectable pastas after few days in the wilderness, and most importantly: they never ever give up!
Bryson presents very naive justifications for the colonists' expansion into the heart of the Continent. No mention of the poor natives who were killed in millions - a mass genocide of an innocent people!
So Mr Bryson three hoots for you!