Excellent adventures

We just took Shiva to our favorite dog park, Red Bud Isle. Stopped at Torchy’s on the way for a few of the best damn tacos Austin has to offer. Apparently every dog at the park thought green chili pork tacos would make a good lunch, too. Shiva fended them off and we eventually ate in peace, once all the people talking on their cell phones finally moved on. I thought taking your dog to the park was supposed to get you away from things that require batteries and signals. Oh, well. We enjoyed our little adventure.

And little adventures comprise big adventures, right? Lots of people dear to me are on some pretty sweet grand adventures right now. Bobby is guiding Scouts in the boundary waters of Canada. Daniel just got back from weeks touring around South America and is wrapping up his 10 months abroad. Cousin Nick is doing the same thing in Costa Rica. Rachel and Russell are breaking in their Portland shoes, Blythe is planning the Big One, Brittany is on the verge of a move to the Big Easy, Emily is hitting her stride in San Francisco. I guess taking risks is a prerequisite of friendship for me.

However, a conversation with dear friend Coulter recently (he was visiting from PA for a few days) planted a seed in my head: exotic travel or big moves (or even late nights of debauchery) aren’t the only kinds of adventure. He’s got that fear of settling that we all have. Settling for less than what we deserve. Throughout college, the way to avoid that was to go, go, go. And when you graduate and get a real job, 6 months or a year into it, you get that urge to go again. I did. Most people I know did. And I imagine it’s a cycle that takes years to break. One of the realities of having Julian, I accepted, was that my adventuresome days of college were ending. And that made me a little sad. No yearlong stints teaching English in South America (at least not for 20 years or so).

I didn’t realize, however, that the adventure was just shifting. From circumnavigating the planet to holding a little boy’s hand as he discovers sitting up and sippy cups. A trip to the dog park and Blockbuster may be the only time we leave the house today, (well, minus work) but this Julian thing makes home life an adventure all its own, with all the ups and downs and thrills and tears that any balls-to-the-wall trip may hold. Having a baby, deciding to leave your high school sweet heart, putting in the grunt work to plow through graduate school, getting a promotion at work, these are the adventures of another of life’s chapters. Eventually, if you go, go, go for longer than you are supposed to, you’re just avoiding these other adventures, the not-so-glamorous ones. But there’s a time and a place for both, and I’m certainly glad that I, and so many of my friends, are willing to embrace whichever kind we find ourselves facing.

(And, if you're a hard, passionate worker with a little bit of luck, the glamorous adventure comes to you. Rock climbin' Corey has been so dilligent with schoolwork and regular work in the past year, and a month or so ago he got the offer to rig an avant garde, outdoor dance project called Blue Lapis Light. Coulter and I got to watch the dazzling fruit of his labor Friday night during one of the group's performances. After the show, we got to talk with him and some of the dancers. He was absolutely in his element and was the happiest I've seen him, I believe. Good things come to good people.)