Adventuresomeness

"I'd like to understand you." said a man who stopped me recently on my morning run to work. "What do you get out of adventures anyway? I think you're missing a few marbles!" After I'd stopped laughing, I asked him to tell me of his biggist yearning. He thought that was fresh of me, but while we were at it, he'd be able to stick out a night with Verona Feldbush. Na, I scolded, a yearning of non-erotic sorts. "A day in the amusement park!" he said, discovering a thrill.

"Just imagine," I started, "you've just climbed up to one of the highest points of the Great Wall of China. It's very crumbly and steep. You gotta "go" really bad, find a bush and crouch down. Just in that very moment you look up to find yourself surrounded by Mongolians, who are damned if they're not going to sell you a few T-shirts. A situation you'll certainly not encounter in everyday life." The man grinned. "Or you're lying in a sleeping bag in a Berber tent in the Sahara, enjoying the infathomable stillness of the desert night (well, except for the 3 snorers and 2 camels making whoopie...). You hear it coming and yell "Sandstorm! Valuables in the sleeping bags!" The tent is thrashing in the wind and all 8 tentmates have to hold the wooden poles supporting the tent so it doesn't blow away...

Adventure means saying adieu to the civilized world, immersing in foreign territory, developing a counter-strategy in a very planned and administered world. Habit is like a rope: if you add a thread to it everyday, at some point you won't be able to cut it. Adventures are full of the most brilliant surprises, their course is suspenseful, their end unknown. Tingling experiences that stimulate and spoil the senses on a particularly grand scale. Vital energies are awakend. Adventure demands fantasy and creativity - boredom and aimlessness are non-existent. Borderline and extreme situations are overcome and mastered. Priorities are re-aligned as one is forced to face real dangers and bear out distress.

"Your on the course alone at night in the middle of the Sahara, the day was hot as hell and exhausting. You're hungry. The clear desert sky takes your breath away, but only offers short distraction as a sandstorm suddenly stirs up, making the florescent sticks lighting the way disappear. The batteries in your head torch are empty. You can't change them, the sand is blowing too hard. You lose your orientation. A truly desperate situation - and yet brilliant."
"Interesting..." said the man and rubbed his eyes as if removing the desert sand. "I don't think I'd ever stick that out."

It's not that we don't dare do things because it's difficult, but it's difficult because we don't dare do things. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. What luck it is to be able to live out one's passions. And those who cherish the things they've done in the past get to live them twice...