Pole position: uncluttering down under
By Greg Lehman ’93

I recently began my fourth Austral summer working as a science support crew member at McMurdo Station, Antarctica. (Our summers here in the Southern Hemisphere run from October to February.) McMurdo Station is the largest United States science station in Antarctica and the southernmost navigable point in the world. We are directly south of New Zealand and 700 miles north of the South Pole. As a cargo handler, I take care of incoming air shipments and prepare items for flights to the pole and remote field sites where scientists camp.
The weather in the summertime often is better than an Indiana winter. The sun is up 24 hours a day and sunscreen is necessary due to the ozone hole and the reflection of the sun off the snow. I’ve felt wind chills down to minus 119 degrees Fahrenheit and temperatures as high as 40 degrees, but it’s a dry cold and does not feel as harsh as it actually is.
We watch seals rest like giant slugs on the ice near their breathing holes. The comical penguins from a rookery just north of us have no enemies on land and do not waddle away from humans. After the sea ice starts to break up, Minke whales spout off Hut Point next to town. And no, there are no polar bears “up there.”
We are limited to 75 pounds of personal belongings for the four- to six-month contract at McMurdo – quite small when compared with the things needed in my routine back home. Life is simple here, and reminds me of my college years. We have dormitories, a cafeteria, lots of social events, a gym, a library and a population of around 1,000 people. I feel a strong sense of community at this remote place more than 2,000 miles from the nearest city across the ocean in New Zealand.
I like being out of the fray of North American life. At McMurdo, we work 54 hours a week, but life is simpler. Food is ready at mealtime, we do not fight traffic on the way to work and many good friends are a two-minute walk away. Sometimes I feel somewhat institutionalized by having everything provided for me, but I’m not so sure humans were designed to function best with the complex lives most of us develop back home.
In this secular society, people are curious about Mennonites. I give them the two-minute lowdown: pacifism, adult baptism, separation of church and state, strong community, not being worldly while living simply. Living simply? I think I’ll leave that out the next time someone asks.
Modern North American Mennonites have become more worldly than much of the rest of the world. A travel bug that began with a three-week trip to Europe during high school and SST in China has taken me to New Zealand, Australia, Southeast Asia, Europe and Cuba in the past three years. Everywhere I go, I see people and cultures with far fewer materialist trappings, but who seem no less happy than we are.
I don’t want to romanticize those who have less than most Americans. At night in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, I saw bicycle taxi drivers sleeping on mats on the sidewalk next to their rides and, in Cuba, I stood in line to buy bread. Lack of food and shelter are serious problems.
It is amazing how fast my frame of reference changes. Upon returning from Southeast Asia in the spring of 1999, I found my dented 1987 Toyota waiting for me. After encountering people with few possessions in Laos and Cambodia I felt incredibly wealthy – my car let me go anywhere I pleased at any time. By the summer, I caught myself avoiding acquaintances, as I would be embarrassed to be seen driving such a junky car. It is all too easy to get caught up in keeping up with the Joneses – or Millers or Yoders.
Eventually, I want to live full time in the United States without being trapped in a rigid, 9-to-5 schedule. Part of this lifestyle will involve not consuming so many goods and resources. Americans only make up five percent of the world’s population yet consume 40 percent of all energy. The church as a whole does very well in most areas of social justice, but, like the average American, seems to make only token efforts toward better stewardship of the earth.
Why make life difficult for ourselves by buying into the American mainstream materialist culture? What is the right amount of stuff to fulfill our needs, but yet not complicate, control and bog down our lives? Why do we not live simply and in close community with each other leaving more time in our schedules for things like fellowshipping together and helping those who have need? If we did, I think we’d all be a lot happier.

Gregory Lehman ’93 graduated from GC with an art major. He plans to return from Antarctica in February 2001 to begin building a small house with natural materials.

Return to December Bulletin contents
The journey of the magi, and travel journaling, editorial by Rachel Lapp
Lifelong learning: the long approach home by President Shirley H. Showalter
A small boat on a big sea by Mary Lois Detweiler Miller ’50
Lessons from Africa by Sally Jo Milne ’67 with Rachel Lapp
On service: Ireland, Indiana, Mali by Jacob Liechty ’02
Dear Diary: GC senior reflects on Dominican donation by Alicia Montoya ’01

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