Does living YOUR adventure imply full-time excitement? (MOKF: Day 27)

 This entry is part of the MOKF mini-break where I've been answering questions about my tag line, "Live YOUR adventure!"

Today's question:
Q. "Like in your stories, does living MY adventure mean all explosions and pirates and coolness?"

A. There are a couple of different directions I'd like to go with that, but I'll choose only one for now.

The really interesting thing about all the excitement in the stories we enjoy is that if it actually happened to us in real life, WE'D HATE IT!  I hit on this a little in book 1.  In it, Jane gets into a high-speed car chase and gives up, shaking and about to pass out, after nearly getting creamed by a semi.  Because, as she learns, in the movies car chases are cool.  In real life, terrifying!







In fact, let's take this a step further.  Beyond just the action sequences, what if you experienced the level of pain and trouble in your life that the hero has to overcome in the story?  It would be AWFUL!  You wouldn't feel like the hero.  You'd feel like God was out to get you or something.

And yet, we do have troubles, don't we?  What if we took a step back and viewed our life's adventure more like a story?  It's the troubles that would drive us; motivate us; give us something to fight.

Instead of looking at struggles like "Oh, man!  I hate this!", maybe we should start viewing them more like a challenge to overcome.

That sounds like a bad motivational speech.  Apologies.
(But for your homework, go read how the book of James starts out.)

The simple fact is that hero needs challenges to fight.  In fact, without them there is no adventure, nor a hero.

I'd like to end off with one of my favorite quotes from  Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers 

Sam: By rights we shouldn't even be here. But we are. It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something.

Frodo: What are we holding onto, Sam?

Sam: That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo... and it's worth fighting for. 

Live YOUR adventure!
-E.L. Fletcher