Daily Cascade

9/11- -And the Prompt: Adventure vs. Routine

Prompt: Adventure vs. Routine
"If you think adventure is dangerous, try routine; it is lethal."
Paulo Coelho
What do you think adventure is? And is routine all that bad?

Alternate Prompt:
The 9/11 terrorist attacks killed 2977 people and changed the world as we knew it. Write about your feelings and the consequences of this historic day.

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i love Paulo Coelho's work, but this quote sounds like adventure and routine are enemies or it is either one or the other. I rather think their beauty lies in their balance. Simply put, adventure without routine would burn me out. I really don't need any burn-outs in my life. Not now! Not at my age!

Routine settles me in, is predictable and it grounds me. It lets me conserve my energy and focus on known projects, so I can build better habits for doing things. It leads to faster practice of the things I do daily and it makes repetition a comfort, like a short nap. It makes my life feel manageable.

On the other hand, routines without any adventure would make me idle, my days blurry and dull, and make my brain weaker almost in all areas. Routine, however, when I wake up every morning, grounds me, as I do the morning chores and whatnot. It makes me feel stable... well, somewhat, so I can be ready or face the adventure that will surely pop up with one thing or another.

As an aside, the worst kind of adventure is the adventure I hate to face with companies who haven't mastered the new technologies and they keep changing things at the drop of a hat. They certainly are keeping me on my toes enough and they don't let me enjoy the kinds of adventures I really like.

The kinds of adventures I like or real adventure, by the way, means stepping into the unknown. It means enjoying uncertainty while doing something new that I enjoy. This may take the form of travel, new experiences, or bold decisions that disrupt the predictable flow of daily life. Their defining quality is novelty. They add perspective. They sharpen my senses. For example, I can notice the colors of a new place more vividly and listen to the unfamiliar tunes or voices more closely because every moment demands my attention. Furthermore, adventures push me beyond my comfort zone, teach me resilience, flexibility, and the ability to embrace change with a smile on my face.

Then, for us writers, adventures give us stories to tell, while, their helpmate routine gives us the strength and knowledge, so we can live with them and write about them.

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Alternate prompt: 9/11

I so remember that day, although I really, truly don't want to. At the time, it felt as if it were the worst day of my life, and maybe it was, too.

As the result, like the most of us, I was depressed, had difficulty concentrating, and trouble sleeping. The general focus everywhere became the fear, anger, and worry for our national security.

Looking back, it might have brought us together strongly then, but only for the moment or for a short time, but when the initial feelings and precautions became more lax, it also divided us a lot more than earlier, leading to today's right-left abyss, where the right-left stance, earlier, was only a small gap.

I don't want to tell again and again, what I and my family and my nation went together that very day. It is too disconcerting for me. But surely, even with the distant recall of those fateful times, I still feel the echoes of that huge thunder and explosion, and even today, I feel like my insides will ignite and explode, as well.