Why Be An Adventurer?

I love adventure. My favorite genre is fantasy, my favorite video game is Legend of Zelda, most of what I write is about an adventure of some sort. I stake my claim in this and dare to call myself an adventurer, and I invite you to join me. I think that without adventure, life is worthless.

How can you be called an adventurer, NikMac? I hear you ask. You barely ever set foot outside of your apartment willingly. Forget that, you barely move from your couch. Seriously, when was the last time you washed your dishes? And your clothes for that matter? I worry about you...

Well, to answer your question, let me start by asking one of my own. What is an Adventurer?

1) An Adventurer is an Explorer. 
To adventure, you must explore. You must venture outside of your comfort zone to experience new and impossible things. Because of this, an adventurer is never done in the business of adventuring. There will always be that next mountain to climb, forest to wander, sinister cave to brave.

2) An Adventurer is Brave. 
This stipulation follows the first fairly well, because in order to leave your comfort zone, a certain amount of courage is a prerequisite. And by courage I mean the ability to overcome fear, not the lack of it. Those who lack fear make for poor adventurers, because to go on an adventure is to grow, and very few things stimulate growth like overcoming fear.

3) An Adventurer is Good-Willed.
To adventure is to grow, and to grow is to learn. To harbor malice or ill-intent in your heart is cancerous and produces a narrow mind, and narrow minds do not learn. On the other hand, good will towards others nurtures a spirit ready, willing, and hunger to learn anything it can. This does not necessarily make the adventurer a hero or a martyr. It simply means they are a person and not a poison.

Those are three of the main characteristics of adventurers. But how does this translate into the here and now? How can a couch potato such as yours truly be called an adventurer? And, of course, why be an adventurer to begin with?

Today the world seems so small. With TV and internet and all the great and ever-growing innovation of technology, there seem to be precious few pockets of the world left to explore. But while there is so little left of the physical plane to explore, there are infinite possibilities to explore outside of that. We as humans are made to be creatures of great ambition, and when we choose to peruse that ambition it takes us into that forest to wander, with so much to try and conquer. No matter how narrow your path seems it takes you to unexpected places with challenges to overcome and rewards to be had. If you asked me three years ago what I wanted to do for a living I would have told you writing books. If you asked me now I would tell you writing novels and comic books and for animation and video games with a little bit of producing and indie work on the side and maybe some voice acting if I ever had the chance. And even outside of my chosen passion I can tell you I've adventured. I've gone from being a textbook shut in to a more sociable introvert, I've dived deep into the word of God even in the times it's convicted me, I've gone to places where I know I'm not welcome to proclaim what I know. That is my claim to the title adventurer.

So that leads to the big questions. Why be an adventurer to begin with? And, with all I've said today, I think the better question is, why not? As I said earlier, we are creatures made for fulfilling great ambitions. And if we're not always striving to do that, then what's the point? Are we born to just stand in one place until we die, or do we move? Do we learn to crawl, walk, run, bike, drive, fly? The point of this life is to take that next step forward, the resting is saved for the next. So, not being an adventurer is to go against the nature of your soul, like not eating would go against the nature of your body. All that would be left afterwards would be to wither.

Stats of the Week:

Song: Zi-Zi's Journey by Lindsey Stirling

Book: Showdown by Ted Dekker

Word: Odyssey

Quote: "Fantasy remains a human right. We make in our own measure and in our derivative mode, because we are made; and not only made, but made in the image and likeness of a maker."

~J.J.R. Tolkien