Hello, my name is Nate. My home is in Gustavus, Alaska, in the Tlingit Huna Kwan homeland, on the edge of a vast wilderness area, but I am writing this from McMurdo Station, where I am applying my computer skills this austral summer in the service of the US Antarctic Program. I’m an IT Pro by trade, having worked as a computer specialist for Glacier Bay National Park for 23 years and having co-owned a tiny computer and communications consulting business for nine years. Before I lucked into this line of work, I guided sea kayak trips (I co-founded Spirit Walker Expeditions, still in operation under new ownership more than 30 years later), processed fish and crab at a seafood plant, washed dishes, cooked, drove, installed burglar alarms, worked as a ranch hand, and installed solar hot water systems.

But I work to live, not the other way around. Even before my semi-retirement I arranged my life to spend my (boreal) summers sea kayaking, camping, hiking, and backpacking in my big, wild back yard. I love the sense of personal discovery that comes from finding something special that I did not expect. I seek out destinations I have not heard about, and I have often been where I felt I might be the first person to set foot. I treasure my time in habitats teeming with wildlife, my perception zooming out to take in the vast web of life in which humans are just one strand.

I am a systems thinker. I deeply ponder reality and “my” part of it. I have become highly skeptical about self, free will, consciousness, individuality, and duality. Once proud to be independent and self-reliant, I am now grateful to be an infinitesimal but very lucky part of a *whole *so great I cannot conceive it.

What is so special about you? What do you have that you were not given? And if it was given to you, how can you brag?1 CORINTHIANS 4:7

I have surrendered any concept that I deserve or earned my great fortune — my freedom and leisure, my physical and mental health, my financial security, my great friendships and community, and my awesome family. The truth is I hit the jackpot in the birth lottery, and my luck has compounded ever since. It’s not that I haven’t worked hard or given back, but the very fact that I am *able *to do so is a result of my nature and nurture, gifts for which I can take no credit.

It pays to be a “white” male born in America in the early sixties to caring, respectful, mentally healthy middle-class parents. It also pays to be lucky. I wish my success derived less from historical and continuing racial injustice and from a lottery system that rewards good luck while further impoverishing those who suffer a bad break. I wish my privileges did not arise in part from others’ subjugation and loss, notably the dispossession of the Sioux who had lived on the land my family farmed in Minnesota. I believe there are fairer systems that ultimately result in greater prosperity and happiness for everyone. I believe with privilege come obligations. I hope to explore some of these topics in my writing.

Hello, my name is Nate. My home is in Gustavus, Alaska, in the Tlingit Huna Kwan homeland, on the edge of a vast wilderness area, but I am writing this from McMurdo Station, where I am applying my computer skills this austral summer in the service of the US Antarctic Program. I’m an IT Pro by trade, having worked as a computer specialist for Glacier Bay National Park for 23 years and having co-owned a tiny computer and communications consulting business for nine years. Before I lucked into this line of work, I guided sea kayak trips (I co-founded Spirit Walker Expeditions, still in operation under new ownership more than 30 years later), processed fish and crab at a seafood plant, washed dishes, cooked, drove, installed burglar alarms, worked as a ranch hand, and installed solar hot water systems.

But I work to live, not the other way around. Even before my semi-retirement I arranged my life to spend my (boreal) summers sea kayaking, camping, hiking, and backpacking in my big, wild back yard. I love the sense of personal discovery that comes from finding something special that I did not expect. I seek out destinations I have not heard about, and I have often been where I felt I might be the first person to set foot. I treasure my time in habitats teeming with wildlife, my perception zooming out to take in the vast web of life in which humans are just one strand.

I am a systems thinker. I deeply ponder reality and “my” part of it. I have become highly skeptical about self, free will, consciousness, individuality, and duality. Once proud to be independent and self-reliant, I am now grateful to be an infinitesimal but very lucky part of a *whole *so great I cannot conceive it.

What is so special about you? What do you have that you were not given? And if it was given to you, how can you brag?1 CORINTHIANS 4:7

I have surrendered any concept that I deserve or earned my great fortune — my freedom and leisure, my physical and mental health, my financial security, my great friendships and community, and my awesome family. The truth is I hit the jackpot in the birth lottery, and my luck has compounded ever since. It’s not that I haven’t worked hard or given back, but the very fact that I am *able *to do so is a result of my nature and nurture, gifts for which I can take no credit.

It pays to be a “white” male born in America in the early sixties to caring, respectful, mentally healthy middle-class parents. It also pays to be lucky. I wish my success derived less from historical and continuing racial injustice and from a lottery system that rewards good luck while further impoverishing those who suffer a bad break. I wish my privileges did not arise in part from others’ subjugation and loss, notably the dispossession of the Sioux who had lived on the land my family farmed in Minnesota. I believe there are fairer systems that ultimately result in greater prosperity and happiness for everyone. I believe with privilege come obligations. I hope to explore some of these topics in my writing.