Photo and original bookmarks by Lucia Whittaker
I want to convince Matt Langdon (maker of rules that kids actually get) to join me for a leg of the Adventure. Perhaps when I leave New Orleans, which won’t be till spring.
This was my pitch:
We will feast like kings and starve like ogres! Burn in the sun and shudder in the wind. One day is a dream of paradise, the next is a fork in the road to choose from.
This is, perhaps, not good sales copy. Who wants to burn, shudder, starve?
Ah, but my time on the road was entirely joyful. There were hard moments, it’s true, but that is travel’s coquetry. She pushes you away when she wants to pull you close. The kiss is inescapable, but you must struggle for it and wait.
When at last she touches your shoulder, it thrills.
The Blood is Mandatory
Every adventure is this way. The dancing of the soul is a guarantee, the bad times its prelude and adagio. No symphony can rise on just one or the other. The blood, as they say, is mandatory.
Thus, from the mud the mountains look loftier. Once near the peak, the mud is long behind you; every thorn becomes a badge, an award, a memory. At the same time, the smallest pleasures stand in stark outline. A slow cup of coffee, a cafe terrace, stretching in wet grass.
Sensual pleasures hum through the soul, highlighted by previous discomfort.
And so discomfort and joy become bedfellows. Two swans who lead the way: one to navigate the sea-storm, one to preen in the sun. They make love in tall grass. They sing at evening.
This is the joy of the heroic faith.
Not reveling in pain, reveling in life itself. Life always entails pain, like the bitters in a well-made drink. The adventurer orders it double.
If you wish to join me, for two days, twenty or a year, we will see it together. You too will thrill in the complete harmony that life presents. We will laugh at snowstorms, hold each other in fever and, smiling, chase the dogs who steal our lunch.
When we relax in a rich man’s garden, we will look at each other across cups of tea and we will know: This is earth and blood.
Earth is all we’re given, blood is all we spend. Why pretend there’s anything else?
This was incredibly beautiful and poetic. I love how you write.
Thank you, Grace. This made my day.
In case you weren’t aware, this will be your pitch when you decide the Heroic Faith is ready for students.
Like, it sounds like the perfect voiceover for a really good movie trailer.
I like the way you think, Luke…
By the by, I never got around to saying this on your “Heroic Faith” post, but the reason I’m glad you’re using “Heroic Faith” isn’t so much because of the name (“Heroic Life” or something similar might just as easily end up being better for you after all); it’s because you’re thinking of this path as a faith, and I’ve been trying to push this usage of the word for a while now.
Just thought I’d clarify.
Noted :)
And yeah… I’m still iffy because the mixed connotation the word “faith” has. But it does seem fitting.
honestly, if things were different and you were a bit closer, I’d probably join right the Hel in.
I was going to hassle you that distance can easily be crossed… but I remember you have a brand new business to run. I understand completely.
Store, full time job, etc. Still, if all that crashes, me and the gf might just say screw it and go adventuring ourselves. Maybe we’d meet up with you.
Of course, the winter is long, and if you ever find yourself wanting, come one up this way. As I have said, there’s a meal and bed for you if you want to visit.
Excellent. Believe me, I’m considering it.
ditto that
“Earth is all we’re given, blood is all we spend. Why pretend there’s anything else?”
Love that line :D
Thank you, Rua. It was hard to work that one in, but I knew I had to.