The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom by Slavomir Rawicz 1956, 242 pages, $14.95 The Lyons Press
In 1940 the Russians sent Slavomir Rawicz, a Polish soldier, to a Siberian prison camp. Along with thousands of other men, he endured a freezing month-long train ride in a cattle car then a two-month winter march to reach the prison.
That killing journey, however, was not Rawicz’s “Long Walk.” In April, he and six other men escaped. Able to take few supplies with them, they initially survived by luck, fortitude, and occasional thievery. While still in Siberia, a 17-year-old escapee from a women’s work-camp joined them; Kristina was to become like a sister and a daughter to all of them.
Enduring extreme hardship and deprivation, they walked through Siberia, the Gobi Desert, Tibet, the Himalayas, and finally to India. They ate desert snakes; they thrashed rye in exchange for a meal; generous shepherds slaughtered precious sheep for these haggard strangers; and in the Himalayas they saw two Yeti.
Only four of the eight survived the year-long walk, and Rawicz ended up in England after the war. In the 1950s, while seeking accounts of the Yeti, a journalist learned of Rawicz’s story and helped him write the book, which has since been continually published.
Doubters have questioned the authenticity of this incredible story; none of Rawicz’s companions could be found to verify his account, and he died in 2004. In 2006, documents surfaced in the former Soviet Union that claim Rawicz could not have been on this journey. Still, he has many defenders because so many people had similar experiences during that time and because his details are highly accurate. I believe that this amazing book is essentially factual, but perhaps it isn't really important whether it is nonfiction, fiction or a mixture of both. Rawicz said, “I hope The Long Walkis a reminder that, when lost, freedom is difficult to regain.”
Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder
by Richard Louv 2005, 334 pages, $13.95 Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
In which of the following activities will a child learn most about nature: riding an OHV through the desert, researching the rainforest on the internet, or building a fort in the woods? Louv contends that the latter, with its intimate contact with nature, will foster self esteem, reverence, creativity, serenity, humility, survival instincts, and more.
I distinctly remember feeling peaceful while sitting beside the spring at the end of the path, and feeling awe while gazing at the stars from the backyard—I sensed my place in the universe. And I can’t tell you how many forts I built in the woods; even today my brothers claim that I built the best forts. Unfortunately, treehouses as well as other forms of nature play are outlawed in many places today due to litigation, environmental protection, and obsession with order, not to mention the loss of natural places to urbanization.
Louv coined the term “nature-deficit disorder,” but he is not alone in his concern. Quoting numerous experts, parents, and children, and using his own insight and poetic language, Louv brings into focus a phenomenon that is altering human psyche.
One child told him, “I like to play indoors because that is where all the electrical outlets are.” Despite this pervasive outlook, Louv is hopeful that parents, educators, and society can meet the challenge. If we simply allow children to be in nature, they will often create their own relationships. Referring to a nature preserve where he was attending a charter school, one inner-city 19-year-old said, “When I come here, I can exhale.” For the sake of all humanity, we must allow our children to breathe.
As winner of the audience choice award in the Sedona Film festival this year, it was interesting to view The Sisters and compare my own feelings to those of the independent cinema viewing masses. The result? Perhaps I am not easily marginalized...
The storyline of this film, suggested by the play The Three Sisters by Anton Checkov, centers around the three Prior sisters living in a college town mostly on campus; in fact most of the scenes, in stage fashion, take place in the faculty lounge. Here, with their closest friends, they delve into each other's functioning neuroses in an attempt to more deeply connect with each other and to heal from shared childhood trauma.
Within five minutes of viewing I was captivated by the lengthy dialogue and committed, intriguing performances by the entire cast. However, as soon as I became acclimated to this rare type of film-making, I was overtaken with the feeling of having stepped into a psychiatric melodrama where the characters openly discuss, as in group therapy, issues within each other that they “need” to resolve. The result for me as a viewer is the realization that yes, it is very pretty to hear and see, and these actors are thoroughly committed - but to what? Extolling misery upon each other and flaunting their internal judgments, prejudices, and, let's not forget, psychoses at every opportunity of communication alloted throughout the script? I just couldn't get into it.
I can't deny that the acting is stellar, and each cast member embodies their character with empathy and continuity. The script is extremely well written, fluid in its verse and eloquent in its witty, sharp, expressive banter. It is the content that I cannot totally embrace. Watching people who supposedly love each other verbally debase each other and use their well-educated vocabulary to demonstrate their various intellectual superiorities and painfully penetrating insights upon each other in order to develop a deeper connection does not constitute a healthy or even tolerable approach for interaction in my paradigm. Rather, I found myself grateful for the precise lack of this type of petty behavior and the self-centered suffering in my own life.
On a lighter note, I bet it was fun to act. Just my opinion.
The Sisters is written by Richard Alfieri, based on his play of the same title and directed by Allan Seidelman. It stars Elizabeth Banks, Maria Bello, Mary Stewart Masterson, and Erika Christensen.
It's strange to me that we celebrate Earth Day once a year. Shouldn't every day be Earth Day? This planet is, after all, the reason we are able to have days to celebrate. Of course, I understand the situation: we live in a very complex civilization full of daily intricacies, from getting to work on time, to feeding ourselves, and so on and so on. Who has time to contemplate nature? Is it really that important personally?
Peg Millet can tell you. Peg is a local environmental activist and musician; last Saturday, I listened to a CD she released some 13 years ago, “Clear Horizon.” As viable today as it was then, it will be hard for me to express the transforming nature of this album, but I will try.
The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom
As winner of the audience choice award in the Sedona Film festival this year, it was interesting to view The Sisters and compare my own feelings to those of the independent cinema viewing masses. The result? Perhaps I am not easily marginalized... 
