As Louis CK said, people do what they are asked:

The Greatest Generation gets too much credit. Those World War II guys, if they had all the s--t we have today, they'd be a------s too. It's just circumstantial. It's what you're called on to do that makes you great.

Endurance is a story of an odd bunch of people that were asked to do something extraordinary. They weathered a winter in the antarctic circle and then sailed to safety in some little boats across the roughest ocean on the globe.

For people like me who spend all our time in a climate controlled building with electronics and gourmet food at our fingertips, a story like this is wildly refreshing. In the midst of hardship these men accomplished something truly valiant. And as I read the book I admired them.

While I don't wish for hardship, or to be stranded in a crumbling shipwreck in the frozen ocean, this story evoked a desire to do or see something truly heroic.

And maybe our connected and wired generation needs to be rugged every once in a while to be truly human. Maybe we need more trips to Maine. I sure do.