George Meegan’s Followers (2)

George Meegan

Born

in London, England, The United Kingdom

December 02, 1952

Died

January 10, 2024

Website

https://georgemeegan.jimdofree.com/

Genre

Travel

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George Meegan was not merely an adventurer; he was a walking testament to the sheer, unyielding capacity of the human spirit to transcend the boundaries of geography and the limitations of the self. Born in 1952 and passing in 2024, Meegan’s life was an extraordinary arc that spanned from the disciplined decks of the Merchant Navy to the desolate, windswept plains of Patagonia and the frozen tundras of the Arctic. His magnum opus, The Longest Walk, is more than a travelogue; it is a 19,019-mile odyssey that consumed nearly seven years of his life and over forty-one million steps. Retiring from the sea as a second mate at just twenty-six, Meegan set out from the southern tip of South America in 1977 with a vision that many deemed suicidal. A George Meegan was not merely an adventurer; he was a walking testament to the sheer, unyielding capacity of the human spirit to transcend the boundaries of geography and the limitations of the self. Born in 1952 and passing in 2024, Meegan’s life was an extraordinary arc that spanned from the disciplined decks of the Merchant Navy to the desolate, windswept plains of Patagonia and the frozen tundras of the Arctic. His magnum opus, The Longest Walk, is more than a travelogue; it is a 19,019-mile odyssey that consumed nearly seven years of his life and over forty-one million steps. Retiring from the sea as a second mate at just twenty-six, Meegan set out from the southern tip of South America in 1977 with a vision that many deemed suicidal. Along this unbroken path to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, he wore out a dozen pairs of boots and weathered the most treacherous terrains on Earth, most notably the Darién Gap, where he survived both a knifing and a shooting. Yet, amidst the physical peril, his journey was deeply human: he fell in love with and married Yoshiko Matsumoto, fathered two children during the trek, and sought out the company of common people and world leaders alike, including a memorable visit with President Jimmy Carter. This was not a race for speed but a search for the "American Dream" and a deep immersion into the cultures of the Western Hemisphere. Meegan’s fascination with the "common man" and indigenous peoples shifted his life’s mission from exploration to a revolutionary form of advocacy. In the decades following his walk, he became a fervent critic of centralized, compulsory education, which he believed stifled the natural curiosity and cultural identity of children. He channeled these beliefs into his work, Democracy Reaches the Kids, and his "Alaska 2000" expedition, where he walked the final 500 kilometers to the northernmost tip of North America to highlight the plight of First Nations cultures. His dedication to language preservation and holistic learning was so distinct that the United States government recognized him with an E11 visa—an honor usually reserved for Nobel laureates or top-tier scientists—making him perhaps the only person to receive such status for contributions to child education. Despite his lack of formal academic credentials, he rose to become an associate professor at Kobe University in Japan, proving that a life lived at the "University of the High Seas" and on the open road carried its own profound authority. Whether he was running for the UK Parliament on a bicycle to promote educational reform or seeking to save the indigenous languages of the Amazon in his later years, Meegan remained a "witty, clean-cut globetrotter" who refused to let his dreams be diminished by age or bureaucracy. He was a man who believed that education should celebrate what a child can do rather than punish them for what they cannot, a philosophy born from his own experience as an orphan and a school dropout who found his truth in the horizon. George Meegan’s legacy is a mosaic of endurance, unconventional wisdom, and a relentless desire to ensure that every child, no matter how marginalized, has the chance to "walk their own dream" in a world that often demands conformity. ...more

10 posts
George Meegan's Blog

George Meegan isn't a Goodreads Author (yet), but they do have a blog, so here are some recent posts imported from their feed.

A Book Review

Hello George,

Just finished reading your book ‘The Longest Walk’ and just wanted to drop you a line of ‘belated’ congratulation.
(although your walk was some time ago I am sure it is still etched as if yesterday in your memory!)
I noted that you attended HMS Worcester. I was at your ‘competitor’ HMS Conway 1959-61. Went to sea in Donaldson’s, though my sea going career was relatively short. I emigrat

Combine Editions
George Meegan’s books

Average rating: 3.99 · 177 ratings · 28 reviews · 7 distinct works • Similar authors

	Longest Walk: An Odyssey of the Human Spirit 4.01 avg rating — 175 ratings — published 1988 — 24 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	George Meegan: The Longest Walk Companion, A Biography liked it 3.00 avg rating — 1 rating	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Democracy Reaches the Kids!: Raising ALL young minds from the ashes of factory schooling it was ok 2.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 2015 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Journey Home 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Democracy Reaches the Kids! Rekindling the joy of learning 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Hope - From the Land of the Polar Bear the Odyssey Continues 1990-2001 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Democracy Reaches the Kids! 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by George Meegan…

Quotes by George Meegan (?)

“In this land of great opportunity and few roads (in most regions the Alaskan Highway is the only real road), the immense distances can only be reasonably handled by air, in fact, half of all the private aircraft in the world are registered in Alaska. Near any urban center, such as they were, I couldn't look up into the sky without seeing at least one fixed wing clawing itself into the sky.”
― George Meegan, Longest Walk: An Odyssey of the Human Spirit

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“If I were going uphill, I was relatively happy since I would sooner or later be going downhill. Whereas, if I were going downhill, I wasn’t all that happy because I knew I would eventually have to be going uphill.”
― George Meegan, Longest Walk: An Odyssey of the Human Spirit

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“After reaching Oruro, I was surprised to learn how many Mormons were living here. Or maybe they just stood out. They could probably be spotted from a high-flying jet, so conspicuous were they in their brown suits, wide ties, briefcases full of evangelical props, and close-cropped blond hair. I spent an hour and a half in the company of two of them, a pair of earnest, sincere, and intensely boring young men. While one with great solemnity sought to convert me, the other standing a foot before my face, silently held a booklet with illustrations to accompany the lecture and periodically flipped the pages for my benefit. It was a hard-earned tea.”
― George Meegan, Longest Walk: An Odyssey of the Human Spirit

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George Meegan’s Followers (2)

George Meegan

10 postsGeorge Meegan's Blog

A Book Review

Combine EditionsGeorge Meegan’s books

10 posts
George Meegan's Blog

Combine Editions
George Meegan’s books