The Challenge In Having Fun

Edition #119 — June 7, 2009

The strongest instinct that we have is to survive. That's why parachuting doesn't make much sense to me. But a friend of mine told me that skydiving was "the most powerful feeling" that he has ever experienced. Can I assume then that the doomed passengers aboard Air France's Flight 447 were yelling "Wow, this totally awesome!" as they fell from the sky?

Okay, maybe that's different. It's one thing to court death for fun and another to actually have to face it. I'm not a big fan of pain and personal injury, so I'm rather conscientious about protecting myself from unnecessary "recreational" harm. I've done a lot of physically adventurous stuff in my lifetime, but I still can't imagine climbing up a steep mountain side on ropes for some reward that only exists within my mind. But maybe this is the whole point, that in challenging the boundaries of our own fear, we also squeeze a little more "life" out of life itself.

Not Quite Harrison Ford, But...

Last week I recounted some of the exciting things I've done in my life. These include going to the Amazon Jungle; whale watching in Alaska; touring the United States and Canada with a band (I even played the Virgin Islands for five weeks); air boating in the Florida Everglades -- and the list goes on. Yet in looking back, each event also required that I face some type of fear in order to have the joyful experience.

As an example, going to the Amazon required having multiple chemicals injected into my body to "vaccinate" against potential illness; I was also going to a country whose language I did not speak; I also went with someone whose last name I did not know until we were already at the airport. And then, as we travelled all over the country, we often encountered situations that could have been hazardous, even deadly. There were the drug runners; visiting a leper colony (I'm not kidding!); keeping an eye on the poisonous spider that lived in a shower stall, the green snake that floated toward me as I waded in a river (likely a Green Mamba!); the "killer bees" nests that we casually swam next to in waterfall pond; malaria carrying mosquitos and numerous airplane flights over hours of untamed jungle — it's one thing to be a little timid about flying and another to know that you'll probably never be found in all that wilderness.

It's an irony that one has to cross a personal barrier of comfort in order to relish the rewards on the other side. And yet, I would not trade a minute of what I've encountered. I even think of all the terrible things that have happened to me - especially the betrayals and bad treatment by other people - and even those somehow seem worthy of having been endured for the insights they brought to my life. I guess they can be seen as a form of skydiving or climbing up a mountain side. I suppose that what I'm trying to say is that without risk, there is no reward. And if we're not willing to risk something, then we can't expect anything in return.

But then there is the other side of it, where young men risk their lives to drag race on city streets; or where a person risks imprisonment or being shot so that they may rob a bank. But who is being more practical, the mountain climber or the bank robber? The drag racer or the skydiver? I guess the moral code is not to hurt others as we're risking our lives -- or our personal comfort level -- to have some fun.

Adventures In Sitting

I've been sitting behind my computer for years now, yet my fondest memories are not of working with this electronic box. I'm thankful that I have this adventurer aspect to my life because typing newsletters isn't very scary. But I'm also working on a book that may bring even greater adventures into my life. And I won't get it finished if I'm dangling from a rope on a mountainside. I'm due for another great new adventure, but I'm sure that it will also require some new kind of courage, otherwise it might not be any fun.

In closing, if you are reading this from a sitting position and haven't challenged yourself in a while, then maybe you're overdue for adding a little "life" to your own life. Just don't forget to pack your parachute properly or you might fall on that kid drag racing down the street. And that could get messy...


There, I've amused myself. Hope I've done the same for you.

Roland K.


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