by David Brown
Teddy Roosevelt was an amazing man.
One hundred years ago, on May 19 1914 he entered New York Harbor on a steamship from South America, just three weeks after emerging from a two month expedition down an unexplored river in the Amazon jungle.
I knew about him not only from history books growing up, but also from the fact that my great grandfather rode with Teddy's Rough Riders. I have a vintage photo of the whole group.
After reading the three volume, Pulitzer Prize winning biography of Teddy Roosevelt by Edmund Morris, I felt that I knew the former president better than some people that I have known most of my life.
Then a friend told me about a book titled The River of Doubt, Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey by Candace Millard , and I could not put it down without effort.
In 1914, The River of Doubt was an unexplored river in the Amazon jungle. It posed the perfect challenge for Teddy Roosevelt, who had just lost a presidential election, and had a history of challenging adventures in his life. At age 54, he gathered a group of various experts and helpers, and set out on one of the most amazing journeys ever recorded.
When reading this story, it was almost as if I was right there with them, deep in the Amazon jungle, facing unexpected hardships, loss of equipment and supplies, unceasing attacks by voracious insects, imminent Indian attack, malaria, death and murder, loss of hope, and trust of others.
It was a metaphor for how I see the world changing, and how I see my own life changing.
We are all in this journey together, in some ways exploring uncharted territory. The world is getting more populated, more complicated, and overrun by technology. Our lives are changing collectively, as well as individually. Everyone is affected. The river of life is moving in one direction. There is no turning back. Challenges need to be faced and overcome, like churning rapids in a river.
When we know that we do not know it all, that we don't have all the answers, then what is left is mystery, hope, faith, and sublime power. Or despair and frustration.
It was not only the primeval human instinct that prevailed and allowed the expedition to live, and emerge from the thousand mile journey of the dark River of Doubt. The instinct to survive was strong in the expedition, with Teddy Roosevelt's bull-like determination.
However, it was the collective instincts of the indigenous tribal groups of the Cinta Larga, who could have easily killed the entire expedition that were decisive in their survival.
Isolated deep the the jungle, they were "marvels of efficient lethality, refined over thousands of years to kill silently and swiftly. They were never seen by the expedition, yet their presence was known. The elders of the various clans of the tribe were in disagreement as to whether to let the expedition live. Their decisions of war were made by consensus, and we may never know how close the decision was to let the expedition live."
However, it was the collective instincts of the indigenous tribal groups of the Cinta Larga, who could have easily killed the entire expedition that were decisive in their survival.
Isolated deep the the jungle, they were "marvels of efficient lethality, refined over thousands of years to kill silently and swiftly. They were never seen by the expedition, yet their presence was known. The elders of the various clans of the tribe were in disagreement as to whether to let the expedition live. Their decisions of war were made by consensus, and we may never know how close the decision was to let the expedition live."
This same primeval instinct prevails today, under the surface of our modern lives. Whether it applies to business or to our private lives, we all have a river of doubt to be overcome in smaller or greater levels of challenge. It is one of the joys of life when we are successful in overcoming those challenges.
David Brown
.png){kind=small}
