Are you feeling adventurous?

I’ve just finished reading Adventure Revolution, by the explorer Belinda Kirk. Her argument is that we all need a bit of adventure in our lives – it’s essential to our human thriving – but in the modern West we live and work in ways that are profoundly unadventurous. This doesn’t just make life feel flat and dull, it can make us physically and mentally ill. To experience the kind of joy and meaning that makes life worth living, we need to have adventures.

I agree with the thesis although, as with all this self-help stuff, I wonder who the “we” is that she’s talking about. I don’t feel like I’m lacking adventure. That’s not because I’ve just come home from Japan, where I was travelling around for almost three weeks – lucky me. No, it’s because I spend a lot of time writing.

Writing might not look very adventurous on the outside. I won’t get cold or wet or attacked by bears. But in her book Kirk says an adventure is defined by four characteristics, and I think writing meets all of them.

1. Adventure must involve a significant challenge. Turning up to a blank page or screen again and again is certainly challenging, especially when you have a deadline.

2. There must be a degree of adversity. I’m trying to say something. It might be rejected. That could be unpleasant. I feel vulnerable. None of this is easy.

3. The outcome must be uncertain. Well, as we say regularly at Dark Angels, “How do I know what I think until I see what I say?” It’s all a journey.

4. The final criteria is that an adventure must be voluntary. It’s 8pm on a Thursday evening. I could be drinking a glass of rose in the garden with my wife. I’m choosing to be here.

So yes, here I am having an adventure. And with it comes joy, meaning, connection, and a good amount of satisfaction.

A Dark Angels gathering is also an adventure. We work hard to make everyone feel as comfortable and welcome and un-judged as possible. But whether it’s for an hour on Zoom or a few days in Kent or Spain, the four elements of adventure are always present – the challenge of showing up, the adversity of trying, the uncertainty about what you will discover, and the guarantee that everything is offered as an invitation – how you respond is up to you.

I hadn’t thought of it like this before. Dark Angels as a creative adventure. Come and join us!