Why Adventure?

Why adventure?
Because you can learn about yourself
Because you can learn about others
Because you can learn about the world.
Because you can jump from an airplane and fall through the clouds
Because you can jump from a bridge with an elastic band and a bath towel around your ankles and live to tell the tale
Because you can jump from a building, stop and pose for a photo, and land on your feet
Like a Superman with style.
Because you can pack a backpack for a year or two or three
And at the end of the time, have so much to show for it, so much to tell about it
Because in the end even though you may have so many bragging rights, you don't want to brag
In fact it's the last thing you'd want to do.
Because you have been humbled
By the foot of Mt. Everest
By the peaks of the Himalayas
By the presence of the Dalai Lama
By the grandeur of the Taj Mahal
By the length and scope of the Great Wall of China
By the stone ruins of Angkor Wat
By the suffering of the prisoners in S21
By the deaths of them in the Killing Fields
By generosity of the strangers you met along the way
Who have so much less than you
And don't mind or resent you for it
By beautiful beaches
And horrible conditions
By earthquakes and tsunamis and nuclear disasters
By the friends you've met and come to love
Because when you adventure you are open to all these things
Because when you adventure you become more open to everything
And everyone.
Because when you adventure you read about people like this: http://roguepriest.net/the-great-adventure/
Instead of people who are famous for being famous and very little else
Because when you adventure,
You live.
Truly, fully, deeply.
Every day.
Always.
All your life.