The Subtle Landscape

 There is a definite downside to adventure.  Several in fact.  And by adventure remember, I’m not talking about sitting against a tree by the river, eyes shut, bobber in the water, string tied to your toe, waiting for a tug.     

  I am talking about the sort of endeavor for which the south end of the learning curve yields lacerations, contusions, and confusion.  With progress, scrapes and dunkings etc get fewer and farther between and thought processes more subtle.  With time and prowess come economy of movement and cessation of thought.  And ever more dangerous situation.

  The obvious potential drawbacks are such things as death and/or dismemberment.  Gravity sucks as is said.  So does hitting a fixed object at a high rate of speed, or freezing to death, or dying of thirst, or hunger, or lack of oxygen.       

  Failing those, problems arise with a first hiatus.  Sooner or later, depending upon the nature of the interruption, experiential desire will return.  In the words of British alpinist Mo Antoine, “The rat will be fed”.  Yup, the rat can be drugged or boozed or beaten into submission, but not forever.  The sooner one makes an offering, the more the attraction of traps and poison is attenuated.       

  The most troubling problems though come with offspring.  Folks whose ideas of fun raise the hair on the necks of friends and neighbors, shouldn’t be surprised when their kids call repeatedly from the ER, or after an attack by a puma in Bolivia, or from the local pokey after a night on the town. If both parents have contributed high pain thresholds, well, hold on tight.       

  Dang.  What’s wrong with staying home?  Couch potatoes don’t get stitches.  Everything can now be undertaken virtually.  Aristotle, for one, found field work unnecessary.  He figured that everything could be worked out in one’s head.       

  No truth in virtual.  Ask Galileo.  Or climber Barry Blanchard who wrote of setting off on an adventure:  “I felt as though I was pushing at the door of a dangerous radiant, cathedral”.  That’s where will be found the metaphysics of light.       

Tags: adventure, Ockham's Razor, truth

This entry was posted on March 4, 2008 at 9:21 pm and is filed under climbing, consciousness/psychology, Family. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.