Pursuing a Life Filled With Adventure
Nobody is going to do it for you!
Tonight I asked my wife, Donna, if, after supper, I could jump in our car and drive all night to the Gulf coast so I could experience Hurricane Sally as she roared ashore. Of course, like always, Donna didn’t think it was a good idea. She never does.
Riding out a hurricane, chasing tornadoes across the plains, watching from a distance as supercell thunderstorms build, explode in fury, then dissipate are all items on my bucket list. The pure adventure and moderate risk involved in these exploits have an unusual romantic appeal to me.
I’m not sure why, but I think it involves the prospect (and risk) of being near the incisive edge of a power that is far bigger than I am.
What’s a life without adventure?
Donna and I just got back from a trip to the Smokey Mountains. We partook of our share of incredible scenery, quiet hikes, good food, and relaxing views of beautiful sunsets from the porch of our rented cabin.
Donna, who is not a huge risk-taker, wanted to walk across the SkyBridge in Gatlinburg…the one that has glass panels in the middle of the span through which you can view the valley 150 feet below your shoes. She also wanted to experience the suspended rope bridges that meander through the trees at the Anakeesta Mountain Park. Donna was a bit worried, but she wanted to push herself a bit.
Being economically-minded (read “cheap”), we were able to pay for both attractions by suffering through a 3 hour-long timeshare presentation and receiving tickets as a reward. No pain, no gain, right?
The chair lift rides to the tops of the peaks for each park were just at the limit of Donna’s “adventure tolerance.” The walk through the trees at Anakeesta didn’t cause her much trepidation and, even though the glass on the SkyBridge was a bit unnerving for her, she said it wasn’t that bad.
So Donna did it, and she and I are both proud that she pushed through her fear to add the experiences to her repertoire.
For me, I enjoyed the mild thrills (that first step onto the glass on the SkyBridge was a bit disconcerting), but since the risk was almost non-existent they didn’t really raise my pulse rate by much. I enjoyed watching and listening to Donna as much as the amusements themselves.
This illustrates that each individual has his or her own risk/reward ratio. It’s not so much about the actual risk inherent in the activities one chooses. It’s more about pushing through your personal comfort zone and getting out to experience the adventures life has to offer.
Adventures come in many varieties
I just turned 64. While it’s not one of those milestone birthdays, I still took some time to reflect on my life’s accomplishments so far, including my “adventure resume.” Some of my adventure experiences are vocational in nature, some are recreational, and some are accidental.
I want to say that I’m not recounting these in a braggadocious way, so as to pat myself on the back. My purpose is simply to challenge you…anyone can have a thrilling life no matter your experience level, socioeconomic level, or tolerance for risk. It’s like “Choose Your Own Adventure.”
Here are some of my choices:
- I learned to fly an airplane while in high school. I took my friends (and girlfriends, including Donna) for rides. I started a little aerial photography business and used the proceeds to pay for my flying expenses.
- One day I almost had a mid-air collision (not my fault) and, while in a rattled state, I damaged the plane when I landed by putting a wingtip into the ground (my fault!).
- I also learned, with my brother, to hang glide in high school. Later in life, I took up hang gliding again.
- My hang gliding adventures have included free-flying with bald eagles, climbing to over 6,000 feet above the ground, having a couple of flights that lasted over 3 hours, taking off from mountain cliffs, and experiencing a heart attack 700 feet off the ground while flying.
- I lived with my son on his sailboat for 6 weeks, traveling the Intracoastal waterway in his boat, getting caught in Hurricane Sandy, and getting slammed by a polar vortex during another trip in his boat.
- I decided to sell the hang glider, and I bought a used sailboat. We’ve enjoyed sailing it on our local lake, and we’ve “trailer-sailed” it to other lakes in Ohio. We’ve camped in our boat under the stars.
- I’ve biked across Ohio with a friend four times on four different routes. On one of our trips, we did a “century,” biking 100 miles in a day.
- I’ve taken numerous camping trips to several states with my family over the years, starting out in tents and moving up to a pop-up camper and eventually to a travel trailer. Once our dog got hosed by a skunk, and we also enjoyed watching raccoons drink a wine cooler and chew a pack of bubble gum they stole from our food supplies.
- I earned both a master’s degree and a doctoral degree while working full time and with 3 small children.
- After thinking about it for years, I wrote and published a book that is now in its 4th edition.
- I helped to start a church that is still going strong after 33 years. I’ve led worship with my guitar at the churches we’ve attended almost continuously for over 45 years.
- Once I pushed through a whole lot of fear to play my guitar and sing a couple of parody songs I wrote for a crowd of over 1,000 people.
- I gave up a nice job as principal of the elementary school in my home town in order to work with a team to start a statewide K-12 e-school which has since grown to well over 13,000 students.
- On my bucket list, as I mentioned before, I want to go storm chasing. Additionally, I‘d like to sail in the South Pacific. I want to sell almost everything, buy an RV, and travel the country. I want to retrace the route of the Oregon Trail. Some day I’d like to go to Australia and either sail or hang glide while I’m there.
Thanks, Dad
I credit my father for instilling in my brother, my sister, and me this zest for adventure and the complimentary lack of fear in trying new things. He didn’t push us into activities we didn’t want to do. Instead, he took us with him when he had his own adventures.
Flying model airplanes, trap shooting, duck hunting, tinkering with cars in the garage, and building a tennis court in the back yard were just a few of the recreational activities in which we were involved.
Later on, my brother, Dad, and I all learned to fly at the same time. We spent our evenings and weekends at the local airport and in the air.
When my siblings or I decided on our own adventures, he supported us. Model rocketry coupled with an unquenchable interest in the NASA missions consumed us during a big part of the 1960s. Dad gave us advice on building our rockets, and he got excited with us in rocket launches of both the model and NASA varieties.
I got into go-karts and mini bikes for a while, and Dad taught me a lot as I built both a go-kart and a mini bike from parts I bought with my paper route money.
One winter my brother learned to operate an ice boat on the lake near our house. Dad was so supportive and complementary to my brother, and he expressed a little jealousy just to boost my brother’s ego even more.
I could go on reciting other aspects of my own play/adventure history. All of this translated into a “go ahead and try” zest for life, whether it was recreationally or occupationally. It was ok to try and fail, try and succeed, or even to try and quit (after giving activities a fair amount of effort).
The meaning of it all
I believe God put us on this earth to accomplish things for His glory. When we fulfill that mandate, it does something special inside us. We are cooperating in the grand adventure He has initiated. I’ve written other posts about these ideas which I invite you to read here:
- Recreation as Worship?: Using our leisure activities as opportunities to glorify our Creator God
- Recreation and Redemption: Taking dominion includes playing in a way that glorifies God
I hope that, perhaps, I’ve inspired you to give more thought to your adventure history and bucket list, and what it means for your life. What adventure might you choose next?
