Eric Larsen seemed ill at ease in is tuxedo. He is more
inclined to trudge across an ice shelf than mingle at a fancy party in
Manhattan. Yet here he was, in black tie, nibbling on canapés at the American
Museum of Natural History.
Larsen came to this event because of how he makes a living.
It’s printed on his business card: Explorer. He had trekked
to New York City from his home in Boulder, Colorado, for his profession’s
version of the Oscars: The Explorers Club Annual Dinner and awards.
More than 1,000 people joined him this month for the
four-hour this month for the Soiree beneath the museum’s fiberglass blue whale.
Among them were astronauts
like Buzz Aldrin, astronomers
like Neil deGrasse Tyson, and a panoply of others of who make a point of
seeking thrills and seeking knowledge, in varying proportions.
Founded in 1904, The Explorers Club is an international
society dedicated to promoting field research and “preserving the instinct to
explore.”
Among its early members were the first humans visit the
North Pole, the South Pole, the summit of Mount Everest and the surface of the moon.
Theodore Roosevelt joined the club in 1915; at this year’s
dinner, there was a looking-alike in safari gear, hired by the hosts. But as
this ghost of expeditions past bushwhacked through guests in evening wear, a
less intrepid spirit came to mind – not exploration, but nostalgia.
No comments:
Post a Comment