Adventure Requires Adversity

Hardship can drive us apart, or it can bind us together. The question is: are we better enduring this adversity together, or apart? Would the adversity be greater or less if we weren’t together?

The answer is the one the Zen Master gave: “we’ll see.”

Adversity will bind us together if we can recognize that we are not the cause of it. We are in this life on this path and we have chosen to walk it together.

Were our choices altered because we were walking together?

Almost certainly.

But those choices are now in the past and here we are. We cannot change past choices, only present ones. And regardless, none of us knows the future.

The past is for learning from, the present is for choosing and the future is for something to work towards.

The question about our present choices must be informed by both the past and the future.

• Are the decisions I am making in the present informed by the lessons of the past?
• Are the decisions I am making in the present consistent with the future I am aiming for?

We are caught between the horns of a dilemma called “the present”.

Horn Number One is the past which cannot be altered but can instruct us. Horn Number Two is the future which cannot be seen or known but which pulls us with tidal attraction towards the darkness of that which we cannot know.

We labor under the belief that we can influence the future. This belief is both true in one sense and completely deluded in another.

It is true because cause and effect are related. It is delusional because Cause is only knowable after the Effect has occurred.

In other words, the link between a specific Cause and a specific Effect is only absolute backwards in time. 

And this is why we must retain our sense of adventure in the midst of adversity. What we perceive in the present moment as mere adversity may – in retrospect – prove to be an extraordinary adventure.

In fact, I bet if you look back on your life, you can see that effect has already occurred. You will perceive events that – at the time – seemed to be nothing but adversity. And yet now, with a different perspective, you can see it was merely a grand adventure.

The pain and fear you experienced back then was not so much because of your actual circumstances. No, the pain and fear was because you were keenly aware back then that your future was unknown.

But now, that unknown future has become the unchangeable past. Now that the fear and anxiety about it is gone, all that reminds is the grand adventure of it all.

And that brings us to the point of this little lesson. 

At some point, your anxiety-inducing unknown future will be a fully-known past. You will have lived through it. You will be changed. You will be able to look at those changes, and know they are now a permanent part of your life. And the best you can do right now is to do your best.

Since all that is true, we can let go of our fears, let go of our anxiety, and enmjoy the adventure of this present adversity.