Adventure

Adventure

Into every life should come a little adventure.  Modern man has forgotten how to have adventures.  We’ve evolved, as comedian Robin Williams says, “from hunter-gatherers to consumer-borrowers”.  We pursue the creature comforts of modern civilized life, and confine our hunting to the shopping mall.  Our only outlet for adventure is the vicarious fictions we consume in the darkness of a movie theater.  We fear any real adventure that might take us away from our comfortable routines, or even threaten our comfortable worldviews.

Till about 150 years ago in America, anyone seeking adventure could join a wagon train and head out west.  A hundred years ago, a boy or girl craving adventure could run away and join the circus.  Even as recently as 40 years ago, a young person could go drop acid in the Haight, protest in Washington, or follow the Grateful Dead on tour across America.

Eric Shackleton in 1914 launched his famously ill-fated journey to the South Pole.  To recruit a crew for the voyage, he ran the following newspaper ad: Men wanted for hazardous journey.  Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful.  Honour and recognition in case of success.

Over 500 men applied for 28 positions on Shackleton’s ship.

What socially acceptable adventures are left for us in 2008?  Joining the army to fight in Fallujah maybe, but that’s too high a price to pay for adventure in my opinion.  I’d rather spent a winter frozen in the Antarctic ice, like Shackleton’s men did.  As Bill Plotkin says, “We need a better game than war.”

Hunting, hockey, NASCAR racing, day trading, and automobile repossession are socially accepted games but they seem like poor substitutes for wild adventure.  They only simulate adventure.

Real adventure always entails real risk.  The risks can be physical, but there’s also the risk your adventure could undermine your small ego sense of self.  In which case the risk is its own reward.

Listen to your wild side.  Go join the circus.