Miles For More II
Accelerating to a better future for Yemeni children.
Murky water collects at my feet, I’m engulfed by the almost concerningly distasteful aroma of sweaty 20-something-year-old men, and the combination of blisters and sunburns scattered across my body greets me with enthusiasm; however, I’m not thinking about any of that in this moment. Instead, all of these uncomfortable stimuli are blunted and silenced by the overwhelmingly satisfying sensation of soap stripping 3 and a half days of dirt, grime, and face paint out of my hair and off of my skin. During my time as an Army Cadet, field training exercises have taught me several valuable lessons – some classic, like, “two is one, one is none,” and others basic, like the value of spending an extra 5 sleepy minutes to square away your hooch before bedding down – but my favorite is that of the power of contrast. They taught me that you can’t truly appreciate the drizzle of hot, steamy water shooting from your shower head until you abandon it entirely during several days of rucking, crawling, and sweating up the wazoo under the shine of Kentucky rays – they brought truth to the saying, “you don’t know what you have until you lose it.” During his conversation with Joe Rogan, Peter Attia – physician and former elite ultra-endurance athlete – described this concept in the context of his 10+ hour journeys in cold ocean waters, proclaiming that, “in life, velocity means very little, acceleration is everything.”
For me, the acceleration I alluded to above came in the form of expunging the stench of a few days in the field. For Attia, it came as the experience of traversing hours of darkness amidst strong waves and heavy winds with the shoreline nowhere in sight, only to find himself sitting on a beautiful beach munching on snacks half a day later. Whether it be sleepless study sessions, days away from loved ones, or pizza-less Passovers, I find that we only truly appreciate a person, place, or thing through experiencing its scarcity, rather than its abundance. And – as legendary boxing coach, Teddy Atlas, would say – there are levels to this game. Sure, it’s uncomfortable to sleep covered in filth in the woods for a few days, but I imagine that this discomfort easily takes second fiddle to the pain of enduring a deployment’s worth of separation from your husband, wife, father, or mother. How about the suffering that defines a stomach that’s been running on empty, not for hours or days, but for months? Even worse, how about the torture of watching your mother, brother, or child at the mercy of such suffering with no cure or remedy to offer? Which fate would be most unbearable, watching the world fall away, as your desperately hungry body decays into submission, or helplessly witnessing the person you love succumb to the same cruel agony? What would you do, give, and sacrifice in such a situation? To what extent would you go to accelerate out of that nightmare?
Sure, I can consider the pain of swimming in the Catalina Channel, but, at the end of the day, I’m left with nothing but my imagination; similarly, I can speak the words, picture the thoughts, and maybe even feel an iota of the emotions, but it’s simply unfeasible for me to place myself in the mind of a starving refugee, parent, or baby and contemplate what their situation is like. Nonetheless, those minds exist in the millions across the globe, whether it be in Syria, Yemen, Ukraine, Afghanistan, Somalia, Sudan, Myanmar, The Democratic Republic of the Congo – the list goes on. And, where are we while they encounter hardships beyond our understanding? How many Amazon orders did we make in the past week, while Somalian refugees navigated challenging terrain in worn-out sandals? How was our luxurious night out on the town or our fancy charcuterie cheese night in the safety of our homes while civilians in Burkina Faso were subjected to brutal militia violence? How did our exquisite filet mignon meal taste – the one that concluded with the loading of extra french fries and the remains of our lamb chop appetizer into a to-go box – while newborn Yemeni babies were nibbling on their fingers due to their intolerable hunger?
Of course, I use words like, “we,” and, “our,” in this context because I am as guilty as anybody else of reaping the benefits of the Western Facade while millions around the world battle for their lives and those of their family, friends, and partners. Maybe our indifference and inaction result from true maleficence and selfishness, or maybe they really are caused by an inability to connect with and understand the reality of the previously mentioned sufferings. Regardless, I suppose it doesn’t matter why we haven’t done enough; rather, I think the important thing is to make the change – the shift in perspective and commitment to support – and start playing a part in the solution. For this reason, I am conducting my second annual Miles for More Fundraiser, in which I acquire pledges to match my walking, rucking, and running mileage for the month of May with a per-mile donation. Last year, I used this fundraiser to contribute to The David Nott Foundation – an organization dedicated to training surgeons and physicians to operate in austere environments and provide humanitarian medical care – and this year I am designating Save the Children’s Yemen campaign, a project committed to providing aid to children of the Yemen humanitarian crisis, as my recipient. If you are interested in making a pledge, please fill out the google form below; furthermore, if you are interested in making a flat donation, you can send one to my Venmo at aidan_chariton with the caption, “Miles For More,” or to the charity directly here. If you do choose to donate to Save the Children directly, let me know, so I can add your contribution to this year’s total count.