Are you seeking security or adventure?
Are you seeking security or adventure? For some reason our society has become a bit divisive, it’s either one or another, without allowing anything in between.
Western leaders say we shouldn’t judge by culture or disability, but look around: people get silenced online for speaking out, or labeled ‘crazy’ for a diagnosis like I once was.
I was told I’d never work because of a wrong diagnosis—schizophrenia, they said. It wasn’t true, but the label stuck, like poverty sticks to kids born in the wrong place. We judge too fast, and it steals people’s wonder.
We’re told to chase happiness, but what is it? A big house? A perfect job? Money? In Europe, where most people are getting poorer, it feels like a lie we’re sold every day.
What life can you chase when times are so hard? Ordinary people can’t afford holidays, sometimes even food for their kids.
In such a social reality where we find ourselves in more despair each day, it isn’t very smart to dwell about whether one should pursue a life of security or a life of adventure. Life is an adventure from the moment we are able to make our own decisions about our own life. We make the decision about how to live it every single day, when you are privileged.
Should you stop in the park to pick up dirt left by someone else? Should you apply for the job of your dreams, but not proceed due the feeling of insecurity? Should you stop and help an elderly person to cross the street, or walk away, assuming someone else will do it?
Life is, by definition, an adventure. It is simply amazing. So many choices to make, countries to visit, languages to learn, fall in and our of love, make kids, get a dog, try different food, make friends, read books, have long conversations with your friends – all is possible only when one has security as a base.
But look around: almost no one is secure nowadays. In the UK, class splits people like a knife. Kids born in ghettos drop out of school at twelve, thinking they’re nothing. Parents cry because they can’t buy food or pay for heat. How can you dream of adventure when you’re just trying to survive?
Life should be an adventure—learning, loving, exploring. But without security, it’s just survival. What can we do to give everyone a chance at wonder, not just the lucky few?
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