“How do you breathe?”

Let me share a quick story about the idea of breathing. There was a time I traveled in Africa and was sitting at a train station outside of Johannesburg. There was a South African man sitting next to me, sitting in a suit with a briefcase and study books. We began a friendly conversation. He soon discovered that I was from Alaska. “Alaska!” he proclaimed, stating and asking at the same time, “It is very cold in Alaska, yes?” Then in complete seriousness continued his inquiry with the very wise question, “How do you breathe?” It was beyond his sub-Saharan speculation how it could be possible to actually breathe in such a cold place. A very reasonable question for a man whose world view included walls made from grass, open air windows and 110 degrees in the shade.

Since then there have been several times when I ask myself his same question, with slight modifications. Usually this question pops on my radar when it’s forty below outside and I am standing in my driveway, plugging in my truck, wondering, “How in the hell do I breathe right now?” With that in mind, this blog is dedicated to the notion of breathing, surviving and actually thriving when it’s wintertime in Fairbanks.

Thriving through a Fairbanks winter involves the art of brain tricking (sometimes known as denial), until the next thing you know, it’s May again. And one of these tricks for me involves going often to the Bahamas—at least in my mind. This is a trick that Steve Martin teaches about 4 minutes into The Absent Minded Waiter . “Going to the Bahamas” means not taking life too seriously, remembering to laugh, and always trying new things.