Northern Apex

Many of you will recognize this stretch of highway as the Seward Highway running south of Anchorage along Turnagain Arm, named by the first white explorers who arrived in 1778 aboard Captain Cook's ships, Discovery and Resolution. Cook sailed up Cook Inlet hoping to find the Northwest Passage, but had to "turn again", leading him to name the water body River Turnagain. Turnagain Arm was named as a favorite place in the January 2005 issue of Outdoor Photographer Magazine but you can see this week the photography was of a different sort as a young man from Homer crossed the centerline, ending the lives of two tourists from Pennsylvania instantly. This same scene plays out several times each summer as brief moments of inattention, drinking, or in this case a controlled substance combine with an unforgiving highway where mountains on one side and the ocean on the other leave no room for error and no chance of redemption.

This past month has been a seemingly endless assault on our senses by the media as hurricane corpses rot by the road and sideshow opportunists seek profit from the misery of others. A month like every other month where it is the bad news that compels people to watch, to buy, to stay glued to the set. What is it about human tragedy that fascinates us? Do we feel better in comparison to those who are suffering? Or do we use it as an opportunity to realize how fragile life's thread is, and to seek enjoyment in each day?

I don't watch TV and haven't in about 10 years but I read the paper and on-line news sources and try to stay educated about what is going on in the world. Actually, that's not completely true as last year I began to watch House with Kerri every week, our one hour of television as a guilty pleasure for "date night". We had to commandeer our daughter's bedroom to watch as that was where the cable was, leaving the living room "pure". In our new place, we haven't even bothered to contact the cable company and pay the $20 a month for basic cable, and amazingly there seems to be no resistance to continuing like this. I do miss our House night, and it is a pain to see my Patriots play, but I'd like to think my life is richer for saying no to television. Even so - even though I have not seen a single second of footage of hurricane Katrina or Rita - I can't escape the media.

There are alternatives out there. Happy News is an on-line news source that focuses on the positive in life, and it is interesting to see the same news stories covered with a more uplifting spin. Choices can be made. I would encourage everyone to find the good in each day as they journey along the road to their apex!