The trip to Chicago this weekend is like that. Is it an inconvenience? It sure is. However, it is also, rightly considered, an adventure.
Life requires adventure. If we don't get it or create it through our normal life circumstances, we run aground the shores of monotony.
This perhaps answers the question of how it is that the average American watches 28 hours per week of television. We as a culture have been persuaded to "delegate" our adventures. We now watch others learn how to dance with the stars or how to survive in a bizarre mix of personalities on a remote island and live vicariously through these experiences.
I, myself, have encountered this phenomenon. I used to play video games. At some point, I realized that I had little "time tags" of my existence that didn't actually exist. I experienced a false sort of joy of accomplishment from attaining epic goals - defeating dragons or whatnot, while in reality I was... staring at a screen and moving my thumbs.
Since coming to grips with the truth of this form of entertainment, I've also come to terms with the fact that if my life requires some canned adventure, it is because I am boring and I need to pick up the pace on my own, self-created, adventures. I will say that life has been much more fun for me since I've made this differentiation.
I look forward to going with you to Chicago this weekend. It is something rather new and I'm not quite sure of the result, except that I will get to spend time with my friends, and hopefully will meet some new ones.
"We are to regard existence as a raid or great adventure; it is to be judged, therefore, not by what calamities it encounters, but by what flag it follows and what high town it assaults. The most dangerous thing in the world is to be alive; one is always in danger of one's life. But anyone who shrinks from that is a traitor to the great scheme and experiment of being." G.K. Chesterton
