with adventure

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“Without adventure, civilization is in full decay.”

Alfred North Whitehead

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With adventure, civilization thrives. Shit. With adventure, people thrive. Now. Adventures are tricky things. Exciting in concept, frightening in action. But then there is the civilization, or society, aspect. Adventure can be a solitary activity, but is more often experienced as a group. And when people have an adventure together, they share not only the challenges, risks and uncertainties they negotiate, but also the growth and bonding that arise when dealing with challenges. That said. Adventure stories tell us that we should all travel off the couch and seek out experiences in the world. Yes. I am suggesting there is a difference between a couch potato dream and an adventurer’s dream. And, yes, different versions of ideas and reality drive different kinds of dreams and drive different types of adventures. Regardless, we choose, wisely or not.

Which leads me to creativity and imagination (the stuff of dreams).

We honor creativity and imagination culturally mostly because creativity is as much social as an individual effort. What I mean by that is any true adventure of creativity and imagination connects with other people at some point; if not multiple points. This is kind of the part of diversity I wish we spoke more often about. When people of different backgrounds come together, new ideas arise from their conversations. The truth is that progress, and new thinking, tend to be crafted incrementally from the fragments of different viewpoints. Once again, creativity is a social affair. I say that because that suggests that creative genius lies in the foundations of social itself.  So, uhm, adventures of the imagination are adventures of society. And just as I stated earlier, the imagination of a couch potato is different than the imagination of an adventurer. And, once again, the main difference is that an adventurer ventures out, amidst others and their ideas and their adventures, and, well, imaginations get honed into realities. And those realities become stuff of myths, stories, and narratives.

Which leads me to stories.

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“It simply isn’t an adventure worth telling if there aren’t any dragons.”

J.R.R. Tolkien

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• Smooth.
• No problems.
• Went without a hitch.

Those are the kinds of words we really like to use in life. They imply things going well, plans well done, and well executed. Implies thoughtfulness and focus and hard work. So, what’s my problem then? There is no story to tell.  Look. I am not suggesting there is only one type of adventure. What is adventure to one person may not be to another person; and vice versa. But what all adventures have in common is they, in the end, have a story to tell.

Which leads me to dreams and adventures.

Dreams need doing or they are simply mental masturbation. That’s why adventure and dreams are linked. When you dream big things, you will find new roads you may want to explore along the way. It is an adventure and sometimes extremely unpredictable and never ordinary. This is because big dreams can push limits of possibilities <or what is possible> because it keeps the impossible in life in sight. Yeah. I just said that. Big dreams, big adventures, purposefully keep the impossible in sight. This happens because big dreams are … well … not quantifiable. If they can be <in your head> I would suggest it is not really a dream, but an objective or goal. A dream has to be so big it is just an idea, something difficult to put a number on it or a specific GPS coordinate. It is always somewhere on the horizon and always contains just a bit of impossibility (until it doesn’t). And in reaching toward it the possibilities of new roads not taken increase significantly. Hey. That last sentence sounds like an adventure, no? Ponder.