Arctic Dreams
“No culture has yet solved the dilemma each has faced with the growth of a conscious mind: how to live a moral and compassionate existence when one is fully aware of the blood, the horror inherent in all life, when one finds darkness not only in one’s own culture but within oneself.”
“What does it mean to grow rich?
Is it to have red-blooded adventures and to make a ‘fortune,’ which is what brought the whalers and other entrepreneurs north?
Or is it, rather, to have a good family life and to be imbued with a far-reaching and intimate knowledge of one’s homeland, which is what the Tununirmiut told the whalers at Pond’s Bay wealth was?
Is it to retain a capacity for awe and astonishment in our lives, to continue to hunger after what is genuine and worthy? Is it to live at moral peace with the universe?”
In his National Book Award-winning book, Lopez shows the reader how wealthy he is in the latter category. Here is a man who is truly in touch with where he is—the Arctic—culturally, historically, scientifically, emotionally, and spiritually. He meticulously and reverentially examines the Far North from every angle, studying how a place can gets under our skin and inform our own human nature.