Book review - Ian’s Ride
Karen Polinsky is a novelist and playwright with ties to the Olympic Peninsula where quadriplegic, endurance athlete, and mobility technology innovator Ian Mackay lives. Polinsky authored Ian’s Ride: A Long-Distance Journey to Joy which published by Mountaineers Books this spring.
I loved how Ian’s Ride surprised me. Polinsky does an artful job creating tension during the dramatic and joyful parts of Ian’s story. I appreciated the excerpts early on from the Spinal Cord Injury binder that helped me learn about the issues quadriplegics have and the example from Ian’s specific experience. For quadriplegics, the measuring stick of success recalibrates, and the narrative makes a case for the celebratory significance of seemingly miniscule accomplishments, such as taking a breath on your own or exploring a path alone.
As someone who believes in the power of outdoor experiences to transform our lives, I loved how Ian’s condition improved once he was able to interact with and be outdoors. He was outdoorsy before his injury, but it becomes clear that time outdoors furthers his recovery in myriad ways. Because Ian wanted to get out, he started to bring into his life the people, technologies, and community he needed to get there and to maintain his own mental health – proving that people with profound physical limitations still have agency and benefit from exercising their independence in the ways they can.
If I were in a similar situation to Ian, I can’t imagine how I would face such an agonizingly slow improvement. It’s clear that the early days, weeks, and months of Ian’s recovery were particularly challenging. While I don’t wish traumatic injuries like what Ian experienced to happen to anyone, I find it incredibly poignant that Ian found a way to orient to his new circumstances and embrace the gift that it offered him. I think it’s a valuable lesson for all of us to surrender, accept, and adapt to what life presents us because our individual paths – whether we like it or not – are leading us to our work in the world.
