The Hunt for Small Adventures

[mallorys_camera]

So, it looks like the National Counting Project has finished counting everyone in Dutchess and Ulster counties who’s willing (however reluctantly) to be counted.

Gotta say: I enjoyed counting—even when I didn’t. And I’ve been in a great mood these five weeks past, more-or-less consistently.

Interesting Life Lesson for me: I feel like my most authentic self when I’m engaged in small adventures.

So, in order to continue to feel like my most authentic self, I must continue to be engaged in small adventures.

How does one pull that off in a time when there are so many cultural pressures to hunker down in the home fort with all hatches drawn and barricades raised?

I’m not sure.

I have my imagination, of course.

But imaginations are like campfires: They have to fed the right kind of fuel, and you have to shuffle the embers around from time to time.

One of the reasons I’m feeling so sanguine, I’m sure, is that I have almost entirely stopped paying attention to current events.

I’m voting for Biden. And getting trained as a polling inspector. In fact, I’ve been assigned to be the Official Sanitizing/Social Distancing Coordinator at the Cardinal Road Firehouse polling site! That basically means I will be scurrying about in a space suit on the day of the presidential election, scrubbing down voting machines with Agent Orange.

So, you know. I haven’t sunk into some vacant, apolitical torpor.

But this constant beating of the drums?

On our left, ladies and gentlemen, we have the Army of the Angels led by Unca Joe Biden and Kamala Harris—who kills it with not just one (African American!) but two (South Asian) minority demographics! And on our left, we have the Legion of Darkness, led by Orange Man Trump and his VP Mike Pence who squeezes his legs tight whenever he has to be around a woman who his not his wife!!!!

Uh-uh.

NO.

I ain’t playing.

Comments

[moondance66]

"Interesting Life Lesson for me: I feel like my most authentic self when I’m engaged in small adventures.

So, in order to continue to feel like my most authentic self, I must continue to be engaged in small adventures.

How does one pull that off in a time when there are so many cultural pressures to hunker down in the home fort with all hatches drawn and barricades raised?"

That is exactly the problem I have been facing over the last few months.

It doesn't help that I feel that no one really understands what I'm trying to say when I try to explain it.

[mallorys_camera]

Yah. Well. There is a way to have those adventures, I'm positive of that! 😀 It's just a matter of being open to the opportunities.

[rebeccmeister]

What about geocaching?

[mallorys_camera]

That's a good suggestion, actually. I used to play Ingress.

[rebeccmeister]

Oh nice. My younger sister and a former roommate were TOTALLY into Ingress, along with a couple of my LJ/DW friends. I can appreciate why.

I got to see the appeal of geocaching through a friend of mine who is a longtime geocacher. We went on a little roadtrip for a bike ride, and at a couple of points wound up doing some geocaching, and it absolutely took us to places I wouldn't have checked out otherwise and gave me a different connection to the landscape. I'm not organized enough to take it up as a hobby but it seems like a great way to get motivated to explore more.

[johnny9fingers]

I’m drinking too much, smoking too much; and not playing enough guitar. And I’m playing quite a lot really.

There are too many notes to play before I kick the bucket. And I want to play a sizeable percentage of them... in the right place. 🤣

[mallorys_camera]

I've cut wayyyy back on my own alcohol intake because it would be wayyyy to easy for me to spend the remainder of the pandemic in ann alcoholic stupor. 😀