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February 25, 2005
What is adventure & where does it take you?
Adventures are more than just fun. They seem to have seem deeper meaning and some deeper necessity and that's what we talked about in this philosophy cafe. In an adventure, there seems to be some discovery one is after, a mystery one is tracking down - some sort of leap into the unknown, in whatever respect. Whether it's travelling to Argentina, trying out an entirely new kind of toothbrush or sitting in a counseling session to discover yourself. The adventure also takes you out of your comfort zone, not in a completely threatening way, but in a way that seems to hold some promise of growth.
Which leads into the question of "where adventure takes you". We nearly came to some consensus that, speaking generally, no matter where the adventure literally takes you, it brings you to yourself, but a self that's expanded in potentiality and courage as a result of the adventure. Sometimes we need adventure, and if there is this need it would seem to be a need for growth, which may be a basic human impulse. Then again, not everyone is so adventurous and even the greatest adventurer appreciates down time. This weariness from adventure may point to something deeper than just physical or emotional limits - it may be that one has to gather together "what I am", or re-integrate, after an adventure in order to better see the next growing edge, the launching point for the next adventure.
But are adventures always positive? Most of us were thinking that if the outcome is not positive, we can't consider the experience an adventure. Like if you die before you reach the top of the mountain, what started out as an adventure turns into a tragedy. It's hard to talk about the adventure of dying from cancer, unless that experience does in some additional way lead to personal growth.
If it is an adventure, it leads to a good story. Adventure may even be the basic story of human existence, tragedy being the denial of a good ending and comedy the absurdity or mishandling of the journey (and realism may be the denial of the story). Thinking of cycles of adventure and integration, I'm reminded of the subtitle to Tolkein's adventure story *The Hobbit*, which is "There and Back Again". But can you ever go back again? - Drew
Posted by lyceum at February 25, 2005 09:38 AM
Comments
When I first read about the subject, "What is adventure and where does it take you", I immediately thought about an insightful passage from the book "Ahab's Wife, or the Star-Gazer" by Sena Jeter Nasland.
Nasland has the ability to find the internal similarities between what might appear to be two very different external events. Nasland lets the reader explore both the internal processes and the external reality of the two separate and seemingly unrelated events. She provides the reader with a window into the multi faceted lives of both male and female through her use of similarity and contrast.
The story is set in the mid 1800's during in the New England States. Many of the men were sent to the unpredictable, adventurous sea for the whaling industry. The women stayed at home and tended to the chores of homemaking and child rearing.
Una, the main character, is pondering aspects of life in this passage.
"I thought of the miles and miles of thread that her thimble thimble had pulled through cloth. What song had the needle sung to the fibers of the fabric? When she quilted, the needle passed through three layers: the pieced top, the inner batting, and the sturdy muslin underlayer. If all the thread from all her quilts were measured, would it stretch a thousand miles? Had her needle trudged, as a man's foot might trudge, over a journey of thousand miles?
She sat still, I thought, and yet she traveled. And when one stitches the mind travels, not the way men do, with ax and oxen throught the wilderness, but surely our traveling counted too, as motion. And I thought of the patience of the stitches. Writing a book, I thought, which men often do, but women only rarely, has the posture of sewing. One hand leads, and the other hand helps. And books, like quilts, are made, one word at a time, one stitch at a time." end of quote
Later in the story, Una continues to validate women's journeys and adventures but finds a longing within herself to go outside for her adventure. She speaks about this longing in the next passage:
"Uncle had already already had his life on the sea. For my aunt and my mother, journeying lay in their fingers for the most part. They knew the landscap of colored patches, the rivulets and the tributaries of stichery. They knew the voyage of reading. It seemed an inward journey. But the sea! the sea! How could it not seem freer, wider, more uncharted than anything else one could know?" end of quote
Ann McNeal
Posted by: Ann McNeal at March 2, 2005 07:03 AM
I enjoyed the "adventure posting." I do question the idea that adventure cannot include a tragic ending or that tragedy negates adventure. The dying adventurer will [or may] gain insight and growth into his situation even though it may be too late or inopportune to benefit from the discovery. Although I have survived so far, I have fallen out of many trees. On the way down, I usually recognized my error in a flash and turn to concentrate on the landing, if not preoccupied by the thrash of branches on the way down.
So, short of being blind-sided by an unforeseeable and abupt accident, the success of an adventure depends upon preparation and momentary resourcefulness, a mental preparedness to take quick action. Personal growth, learning or insight gained from a tragic event would depend upon the duration between the onset of the tragic event and one's conclusion (death) and upon ones conscious mindfulness during that duration. Personal growth can occur in a moment.
Then also, consider the growth of those who listen to the tragic story of the adventurer. Tragedy is often an energizing punctuation on an adventure that can transfer the adventure and its discoveries to the next adventurer.
Posted by: Samuel Holder at July 17, 2005 12:59 PM