“I am a writer who came from a sheltered life. A sheltered life can be a daring life as well. For all serious daring starts from within.”
– Eudora Welty, quoted in Traveleing Feast by Rick Bass
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“There are endless obstacles and impediments to finding the truth. You might never find it; it’s an elusive goal. But here’s something to remember. The world is out there- like an undiscovered continent. And it’s our job to go out and discover it.”
– Errol Morris, The Ashtray
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Adventure and discovery can take many forms.
Of course there is the swashbuckling cliche of the Victorian explorer, ready to be swallowed by an unexplored jungle or desert.
There are our modern, nuanced, adventurers who report from a rapidly changing and homogenised world.
I am an explorer in the Eudora Welty mold. I prefer to venture forth from the safety of my armchair. I explore books and counjor ideas without leaving the house.
I am an intellectual. Not because I believe I am particularly smart – my intellect is certainly not impressive. More because I am happiest amongst ideas. I range widely using my eyes, following the contours of my favoured maps – books!
I choose not to be idle. Although you could certainly mistake my current position as idle: sitting in an armchair, staring at my phone.
But my staring is productive. I am writing, discovering what I think, just as much as if I were stepping through novel places on terra firma.
I am not satisfied with a mind that is switched off.
I want to discover the world.
Fortunately, I can summon the world to my front door, choosing who I’d like to invite in.
A life of daring? Maybe.
But certainly a life of my choice.
Conversations With Quotations 