| Off-the-Cuff - Whose Adventure is it, Anyway? - Fall 07 |
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| Written by Char Thompson | |||||||
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Char Thompson takes a look at the everyday adventures that fill the lives of women. I have a friend who, every year on her birthday, has a ritual of some type of personal challenge. She takes herself outside of her comfort zone and does something she's never done before. These adventures of hers include cutting her long hair short, eating alone in a restaurant, and maybe, if she's really brave, going alone to a movie. This leaves me to chuckle, an acrimonious "big deal" as I critique someone else's value system. Is cutting your hair short risky or dangerous? Maybe. My friend's birthday rituals create an element of fear that will carry her until her next annual escalade. More knowledge of herself will lead to greater personal goals and self-knowledge. So, who cares where you get your adventure, as long as you get yourself some. I have just climbed my own Mount Everest of sorts-I have finally, after three months, put away all my laundry and unpacked all the suitcases in the house. Months of traveling (not like fun travel, but obligation and work related) have had us living out of the laundry hamper. You know...where you pull something out, sniff it-decide-wet it-throw it in the dryer. Inside, you're living with your secret, your insides beaming with pride at your meeting, because no one knows where this shirt was two hours ago. I truly believe that climbing any real mountain could be better than overcoming Mount Laundry. My partner doesn't know that joy. He turns his underwear inside out to wear for another day. The bliss. He doesn't create the mountain-but I do. I've had many climbs, many ascents such as these, and I've grown as a woman because of it. Within my own home, I create my greatest obstacle and my greatest triumphs. Who knows what my next big thing will be. Some days, I'd like to book myself into one of those day-surgery clinics, and tell them to take out that part of my multi-tasking brain so I don't have to challenge myself anymore. Why else would I spend two weeks researching four different food allergies in my daughter's class to come up with a homemade edible treat for Valentine's Day? My six-year-old told me to just buy everyone a pencil with hearts on it. When does that multi-tasking part of the female brain form anyway? Trying to keep it together in this day and age is as much of a challenge as being a pioneer. If we can survive and prosper, through all our sacrifices, stress, and loneliness, then we deserve to run down a hill in our petticoats until we fall laughing into a field of grass. Sure, we may not have to survive through extreme heat, cold, bugs, or lack of menstruation products, but our hardships are real. It's amazing us women adapt as well as we do, living in our world of excess. As I was grocery shopping looking at the wall of yogurt, that is so functional now, you don't need a tube of anything to cure a yeast infection, I overheard a woman ask for a certain bacteria. "I'd like some Lactobacilli to balance my flora, do you have that in a yogurt?" If I find laundry a challenge, can you imagine how I felt listening to this? When did we have to learn the names of bacteria? I'm an art major, I already earned those credits, I don't want to upgrade. It came as no surprise to me that the majority of women adventure travelers are women. I think I'll market my own women's adventure company. I'll tell tales of frustration while working full time and taking care of an aging parent. My tours will be much cheaper and travelers will find comfort in an already familiar itinerary, so I should get lots of bookings. We can tell tales of near drownings and dehydration. I'll get my own line of clothing-kind of like what I look for now. I stay in some clothes for days, opting for no wrinkle wear and tying my dirty hair in cute bandanas. What a market! New for Winter 2007! Come experience guilt as a group-as we talk about what inadequate caregivers we are, while dying each other's grey hairs. Give me a few days while I set up a web site and my PayPal. Darn, and I was going to fold laundry. Comments (0)
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