‘If one is forever cautious, can one remain a human being?’
– Alexander Solzhenitsyn, The First Circle
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“But the ultimate goal for all of us, I guess, is twofold: managing the day-to-day challenges of living and, at the same time, finding ways of truly being ‘alive’.”
– John Peck, How to Add Adventure to Your Life
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It’s not realistic to try to set up our lives for pure adventure or to face constant risk
Not for me any way.
But what John Peck is saying here that we can have two systems running in our lives.
1. Taking care of work, family, bills etc
2. Planning and implementing adventure and risk to fulfill our promise as human beings.
If we are bored or burned out by the first, the second can offer us escape and growth.
If we have pushed ourselves in adventure, then the reliability and safety of our day to day routines can offer a place to recover.
Perhaps a the Yin and Yang of safety and adventure.
A balance.
And risk does not have to be merely physical.
Doing anything that creates fear is adventurous.
Like the person who was scared to write and publish their work and share it with others.
But starts a blog because they feel the call to adventure.
And returns every day to dose up on being a human being.
You are reading the results of this modest intellectual adventure.
Conversations With Quotations 