Destination: British India. Must start by escaping during a sub-zero blizzard from a Siberian gulag 450 miles south of the Arctic Circle. Travel arrangements include six companions from the gulag, little food, and only the clothes on your back. Trek 4,000 miles over the frozen Siberian tundra during the winter time, through Mongolia, then the Gobi Desert in July, over the Himalayan mountains, Tibet, and finally ending in India. Survival depends on going weeks on end without toiletries or baths or much water; on dining (when lucky) on small game, fish, and snakes; on the kindness of strangers with whom you cannot communicate due to different languages.

Cost: nothing — except your desire for freedom and your endurance to gain it.

If this were an ad on Travelocity, would you jump at the opportunity to participate in this travel excursion? No?

Then, the second best thing would be to read The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom by Slavomir Rawicz. This is the true account of a young Polish officer captured in 1939 by the Russians. He was cruelly tortured in an attempt to get him to admit he was a spy. When he refused to admit it (because he really wasn’t a spy!), he was sent to the Siberian gulag from which he escaped.

Would I have the strength to endure the torture that he did? Would I thirst for freedom so desperately that I would be willing to escape from a prison into a wild ferocious Siberian winter? Would I have the discipline to get up day after day after day despite hunger and eternal tiredness to walk thousands of miles? What would I willingly endure to gain my freedom?

The Long Walk is an incredible book. I highly recommend that you read it — and count your many blessings for the freedoms that you enjoy.

Becoming a well-read,
Digi-Gram

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