Wednesday, January 20, 2010

More than adventure.



"A child free from the guilt of ownership and the burden of economic competition will grow up with the will to do what needs doing and the capacity for joy in doing it. It is useless work that darkens the heart. The delight of the nursing mother, of the scholar, of the successful hunter, of the good cook, of the skillful maker, of anyone doing needed work and doing it well - this durable joy is perhaps the deepest source of human affection, and of sociality as a whole."

"But as surely as the future becomes the past, the past becomes the future. To deny is not to achieve. The explorer who will not come back or send back his ships to tell his tale is not an explorer, only an adventurer; and his sons are born in exile."

- Ursula K. LeGuin, The Dispossessed

1 comment:

orion said...

More than an adventurer... I can see some integrity in the act of raising a family in exile, in the unknown, away from man-made glory/meaning. I think it would give one more joy to go back and share. If the adventurer is trying to escape, he may not go back to the land that he felt betrayed in. It is also a form of pride though, to not share. But jed, if you and I adventure, with your wisdom and hopefulness combined with my cynical wonder, we will surely be explorers, more than adventurers.