During my career as a journalist, I've been lucky enough to meet some of my heroes, and also to write about people who became heroes to me. Arleigh Jorgenson, the subject of this profile in St. Olaf magazine is one of the latter. He has a divinity degree, and was ordained to be a Lutheran pastor, but when the moment came to put on the collar, he realized his true calling was as a dog musher. He has raced dogs in the Northwest Territories of Canada, Montana, and in Minnesota's Beargrease Dog Sled Marathon. While he probably never had the kind of mind that could abide a lot of rigidity and bureaucracy, he has been able to inspire others toward a spiritual path with his love of the wilderness and his dogs. Arleigh lives a modest life in a rustic cabin on 40 acres near the Canadian border. He has little material wealth, but he's lived his beliefs while retaining humility and a beautifully opened mind. After the article was done, he found out he had a cancerous tumor in his colon, and underwent surgery last week to have it removed. The surgery went well and it looks like he's in the clear.
