Graveyard of Dreams by Craig Medred

I have very mixed emotions about this book and am interested in what everyone else thinks. Of course, not having read it yet, I could be way off base - but the title bothers me and indicates an approach to life / attitude that I think is incorrect.

The Iditarod is an emotional roller coaster. You go from the highest highs to the lowest lows of your entire life. Life on the trail is very arduous, but very simple. Your only task is to get to the next checkpoint and repeat that process until you get to Nome. Sometimes things stop you - just like life gets in the way of plans you make in the outside world - but that doesn't kill the dream until you decide not to get up and try again. And even if you don't decide to come back to Iditarod, that doesn't mean the dream is dead, just that you have changed your priorities and will chase another dream instead. Something else is more important. But that is a choice we make internally, not something imposed upon us by external forces.

I have to admit, in my second race, halfway between Ophir and Iditarod, when I broke the second runner off my sled and sat there with an injured shoulder, a broken leg (not the weight bearing bone so I could still walk), a frostbit toe, and a badly broken sled, that I spent a very depressing few minutes feeling sorry for myself. But I had 15 dogs and myself to care for and a whole life to live. The priorities quickly became what to do next - how to take care of ourselves until help (the trail sweeps) arrived. Within the hour I was making plans to come back and run Iditarod again the next year.

I don't want to diminish those who choose not to come back. I got a Ph D intending to be a professor at a university. When I graduated there were not enough jobs and I decided it was more important to take care of my family than to chase that dream any longer. The dream never died, it just moved down the priority list because other things I dreamed (good life for wife and kids) were more important. I took my degree to industry and spent 11 wonderful years working for Shell Oil. That was not a loss imposed by outside circumstances, but a conscious decision based upon my values in response to conditions at that time. I never regretted that decision. It was true to my core beliefs.

I guess I feel that if finishing the Iditarod is really important to you, then get up, dust off your wounded pride and try again. Lot's of people do. If you decide that it isn't worth the effort (or that the cost - financial, social, and psychological - is too high), then thank God for the experience and growth in self-knowledge (what is really important to you and what isn't), discover what is at the top of your "to do" list and get after it. But please don't blame the Iditarod (or life) for decisions you should be making.

Keep 'em Northbound

Eric