But one of them caught our eye, the one in the center. He would neither go toward the feeding grounds at the edge of the ice, nor return to the colony. Shortly afterwards, we saw him heading straight to the mountains some seventy kilometers away. Dr Ainly explained that even if he caught him and brought him back to the colony, he would immediately head right back for the mountains.
But Why?
Perhaps much like us, his sense of purpose urged him ultimately outweighing his rationality. To join the rest in endless hiding and survival kneeling to circumstance, or to live life on his very own terms. He may have just understood something the others did not. That existence alone is not the same as living. The cold would test him and the distance would slowly break him. But despite his odds, he walked. Not because he was fearless, but because he refused to give in. Not to conquer the mountain, but to prove to himself that he could try. And so he continues, not aimlessly, but as will itself made visible against the frozen horizon. Perhaps this is what freedom looks like.
-Werner Herzog
