There comes a time when many of us get the urge to explore new places or take on a challenge whose outcome we can’t predict. Well, to the extent that we let the unpredictable enter in to our lives to work its magic, we become adventurers. I’m Jim Metzner, and this is the Pulse of the Planet, presented by the American Museum of Natural History.
“Websters defines adventure as an undertaking of unknown risk and danger.”
Mark Jenkins is the author of To Timbuktu, a book which describes his encounters with the likes of electric eels, crocodiles, and uncharted white water rapids along the Niger River in West Africa. It has all the earmarks and rewards of an adventure.
“There always is a certain amount of risk when you’re on an adventure. And that risk provides moments of tension. And that tension, I think, is incredibly valuable, because so often in life you kind of just bump along and if you make a mistake there’s no real meaningful consequences, you can kind of repair it afterwards. On an adventure, that can’t happen. You’re forced to be at your very best; you aren’t forced to do that in ordinary life very often.”
But even if we aren’t all up to braving the Niger River, there’s something universal about the spirit of adventure.
“I think adventure is just the extension of two million years worth of survival. Stop and watch a child trying to learn how to walk. That child will bump their head time and again all day long for months before they learn how to walk. The desire to walk is so strong. And the desire to walk is almost a paradigm for what adventure is all about. (1:03:12) Adventure is just another form of following your curiosity. And scientists do this all the time. Musicians do this all the time. People do this all the time in their own way.”
Additional funding for Pulse of the Planet has been provided by the National Science Foundation. I’m Jim Metzner.