Yes, that’s what I’m planning on. Big adventure at 50, find a magic ring that slows the aging process, hang around home living large on my riches and telling tales of my exploits for another ~60 years, then skip town on my eleventy-first birthday to go chill with some elves until it’s time to sail for Valinor!
There are many calls to adventure, but we often don’t heed them because it means discomfort and risk - sometimes to the degree that your long-term survival is jeopardized with few means to mitigate that (valid), other times just because sitting on the couch seems nicer (more often than not, an excuse - but a choice you’re certainly allowed to make).
If your ability to survive by the trial’s end isn’t compromised, I think everyone should choose at least one adventure for themselves, even if it’s something that makes you feel a little like Don Quixote. It at least gives you something to talk about.
If anyone else feels bummed out by this, there are a lot of calls to adventure you can answer at any time. 75% of fire departments in the United States are volunteer. If you’re in half decent physical shape, get out there. Disaster relief organizations like the Red Cross are good too. Lots of jobs to do where you can be sent to disaster zones for 1 and 2 week rotations, but also local disaster response, like showing up to house fires to help families find temporary housing.
I was once told by a friend to be positive and that I’m the hero of my own adventure (I am not lonely at that time by the way, I was moving out of my hometown, which is funny enough since I realised after that people seem to think it’s weird if you move out of town for any reasons aside from job or college opportunities). Anyway, I was indeed going on adventure by moving out of town but I never thought of myself as hero before or after. I don’t like the expression because it sounds like stoking and inflating the ego. I have a friend who seems to have that mindset when we were younger, but when our 20s came, he fell into depression for not attaining his dreams and desires.
I think a lot of us were raised to hope and to be like a superhero making big changes to the world. Personally, I see myself as more like a traveller or soldier; experiencing and absorbing the world without necessarily trying so hard to shape the world to our own liking, and also facing challenges and adversities gracefully. Live your life to the fullest as you wish, but what I’m trying to say is be humble enough you’re only human–not a god-- and know when to fight battles.
I think a lot of us were raised to hope and to be like a superhero making big changes to the world.
Ya, so much of our media is about “ordinary person realizes they are not just a regular loser, they are special! They have magical powers or were actually a prince or a millionaire this whole time!” especially anything for young people.
I received a call to adventure this week. Unfortunately, I can live my life remotely, so I’ll barely miss a beat. Just in a different place for a while, and grinding a quest that could insulate me from the horrors of capitalism (if we succeed)
Hey, you! Yeah, you! Start a union at your workplace! Join an anarchist org. Run for local council on an environmental and transit platform. Attend a protest. Paint bike lanes!
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