Thoughts on adventure

Hello faithful readers. I hope you're having a pleasant "post Christmas" gorging fest on food and relaxation. Perhaps you're working and working out and eating well. Hello to you folks too. I, for one, am gaining weight, sleeping in, and enjoying much time with my boys and my inlaws. This break has given me more time to write as well. So, forgive my latest bout of the blogging "runs." Just read, and do your best to stay awake.

I finished reading "Into the Wild" by Krakauer and highly recommend it for anyone interested in a story that is equally heart stirring, terrifying, and gut wrenching. A brief synopsis: Chris McCandless graduates from Emory University in Atlanta, GA, promptly gives his $25,000 inheritance to OXFAM, jumps in his car, and disappears. He later abandones his car, and hitchhikes around the country, finally following his dream to Alaska - just north of Mt. McKinley. There, he is discovered 3 weeks after his death by a moose hunter - emaciated and alone in an abandoned bus.

I tell you the synopsis because my sister did the same to me and it took nothing away from reading the book. Read it.

At any rate, I'm stirred at the conclusion of this book. Many many things stuck out to me from this book but the larger (at this point) issue is one of adventure. Something about the radical life McCandless led is strangely intoxicating. The adventures he embarked on are somewhat captivating to my mind and heart - and so I sit stirred. Adventure, it seems, is lost amidst the daily grind. You, my readers, have no doubt heard that sentiment expressed as I fumble through stretches of life, longing for deeper meaning and life to the full. Adventure, I'm convinced, has nothing to do with necessarily heading into the wild; seeking some type of transcendent, life giving message that wilderness gives. John Eldredge argues that men find adventure getting out of the cities, and returning to their "wild" roots up in the mountains. And I, for a time in my life, believed him wholeheartedly... lucky for me,I lived in Colorado at the time. And while I do believe that Eldredge says much that is true, I have since moved to the flatlands of the midwest, which has changed my tune. How is any man supposed to be wild when they live 600+ miles from "the wild"? Adventure has to be found somewhere else.

A couple of quotes at the end of the book summed up a lot for me. One is a quote from Annie Dillard:

"...when we wake to the deep shores of time uncreated, when the dazzling dark breaks over the far slopes of time, then it's time to toss things, like our reason and our will; then it's time to break our necks for home. There are no events but thoughts and the heart's hard turning, the heart's slow learning, where to love and whom. The rest is merely gossip, and tales for other times."

This stirring of course has nothing to do with me just giving it all away and disappearing. I want nothing to do with the hitchhiking, hunting, dying of starvation in Alaska, shunning all friends and family.... at the conclusion of "Into the Wild", it's clear that McCandless had changed his tune. In his journal toward the end of his life notes that happiness is only real when shared with others. And so, the longing for me is one of the adventure of sharing life with you: my friends and family.
"...where to love and whom." This is the adventure - this is truly what matters.

I'd urge you all to do the same: love unconditionally, fully, without question, and with abandon. Life together, under Christ: amidst pain, suffering, joy, laughter, hard times, good times - true adventure. I'm happy to be on this journey with you all.