On Adventure

If you’re like me you’ve probably been sitting around this past week pondering two words that captured your imagination when you were just a kid. Obviously, those two words were “adventure” and “extraordinary” and you probably remember the time when you realized that “extraordinary” should come before “adventure” so as to form a somewhat sensible phrase: “Extraordinary Adventure.”

After that you probably got caught up in little side tangents such as capitalization for effect. If you’re not like me, then perhaps you might now very well be pondering one word: Why?

Before I answer that let me get to my favorite part of blogging: Definitions!

Webster defines the word “adventure” as:

Actually I am pretty sure you know what adventure is already so I decided not to look at what its actual definition was. Instead I just brainstormed things that seemed adventure-y to me. Here’s a short list.

  • Sailboats – sailboats count as adventure because they are daring, exploratory, and sometimes pirates and/or captains can be found on them (especially in the 15th-18th centuries).  Also they have many different ways of tying a rope. The essence of adventure.

Adventure stays crunchy even in milk

  • Sword Fights – Let’s see … possibility of death? Check. Single combat warriors? Check. Lightsabers? Double check. This is a no brainer. Sword fights are definitely in. Don’t pretend like you didn’t make the “ting” “clang” noises when you were younger either.

A touch! A touch! I do confess it!

  • Airplanes. Flying — especially fast flying — is dangerous and romantic. Couple that with shooting and being shot at and you have yourself a good recipe for adventure. Airplanes are even cooler when they fly over the desert.

No. Desert.

  • Rock climbing, jail breaking, wind surfing, mountain climbing, horseback riding, whitewater rafting, and meeting the in-laws all count as adventure. But what is the greatest adventure of them all? That’s right. Story.

I also capitalized the word Story here in order to differentiate it from the lowercase “story” which I left uncapitalized. Otherwise there is basically no difference.  Why is Story the greatest adventure? Because with Story, you are able to have all these adventures without having to take years and years learning how to not die while performing them.

Certainly I do not advocate sitting around watching TV instead of actually DOING something adventurous, but seeing as it is almost impossible to die from watching TV, it can sometimes be a better choice. Plus, when are you going to have the time to do all of the things one could possibly classify as adventure in one lifetime? Story is the next best thing.

Story introduces the element of imagination.  All you have to do is hear Azeem say to Robin Hood: “Your horse is lame, mine carries two,” And instantly, maybe even without riding a horse, you kind of understand the adventure of horseback riding.

Also Story is easier to access than most of the other things you might list as adventure. No matter the medium — poetry, prose, film, comics, video games, even history and board games — Stories are easily more obtainable than scuba certification.

Coming up in the next several months we will explore what makes some Stories into Extraordinary Adventures, and because this is the Internet (which is capitalized because spell check told me to), we have decided to do it in list form. We will give you 100 major examples of adventures. They will be presented in descending order starting with 100 and working backwards all the way to the number one Most Extraordinary Adventure Story (in any medium).

We invite you to check back often to see the list as it develops. Remember there are a hundred of these and they’re going in REVERSE order so that means that the series will just keep getting better. Meaning, no matter when you check back, it will always be on our best day. So there’s a little motivation for you.

Next up: the 100th most Extraordinary Adventure. Stay tuned.

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