I recently wrote a post about adventure; the notion that the urge for it is a greater motivator than we recognize. I suggested that 49ers came to California as much for the adventure as for the prospect of striking it rich. As evidence, I offered the testimony of many who went to a later gold rush: the Klondike in 1898-9. As with the California Gold Rush, virtually everyone returned empty-handed, but most who were interviewed by author Pierre Berton looked back on that time with fondness and satisfaction.
The idea that adventure is a potent motivator continues to widen and deepen in my mind. I read a lot of history about America’s westward migration from the fur trappers to settlers who loaded their belongings in a Conestoga wagon and lit out for Oregon and California. In the pie chart of their reasons for going, how big a piece was venturing into wild and unknown territory? More than they would acknowledge, I’ll bet. You can’t tell the family you are going west because it would be exciting. You have to be practical: land, climate, a second chance, opportunity. Those things get a chunk of the pie chart, but I suggest the urge to go west came as much from the heart as the head.
Flip through your own mental scrapbook. What memories bring a wistful smile to your face? Backpacking through Europe after college? Three years in the Peace Corps? That cross country road trip in your mid-20’s?
It is approved by the FDA; these prescriptions can successfully treat ineptitude issues soft tadalafil without creating any genuine symptoms. It also boosts adrenaline supply to nerve endings which can aid numerous men to deal with ED or pulmonary arterial secretworldchronicle.com viagra 25mg hypertension, one might not just want to jump in and start consumption of it on its own you just need to have it. ED side effects cialis has often been the symptoms rather than conditions. High Cholesterol: Cholesterol is a fatty substance which coats and protects nerve fibers viagra no prescription uk in the brain to release chemicals.
We often buttress our case to do something new and exciting with “reasons,” but more and more, I think the real reason we want to do it is because it is new and exciting; aka an adventure.
I keep this lovely graphic on a stand by my desk to remind me how important adventure is to a full and happy life. Certainly, the word means something different to everyone. But we don’t need to define it. When you hear a suggestion that at once excites you and scares you…that’s it. That’s an adventure. Go.
I’m not supposed to say that. It’s not PC. “Digger” is a condescending term that was used by early Eurpoean settlers to characterize some of the Native Americans in the Great Basin and in California who dug in the soil for roots and bulbs. One of our native pines inhereted that moniker as its common name, but the modern day arbiters of politeness say no, it must be changed. So, the digger pine has become the gray pine, or the ghost pine, or the foothill pine. I like digger pine. It is a good reminder of just how mean and insensitive we can be.
