Do

I vaguely remember seeing an episode of the Simpsons (I can't say I was ever an avid viewer having only watched a few episodes, but I did enjoy elements of the humour), where Homer found himself in a lab. A lab rat was given an electric shock if it tried to eat some food. It decided against eating the food. Homer undertook the same experiment, and continued to try to eat the food and consequently kept getting an electric shock.

We humans can be good at failing to 'notice'. The above picture was taken on a farm in Corsica. I have no idea exactly apart from at the end of a very long day of cycling. With the encouragement of Lui, a French-Canadian we were travelling with, we had forgone the safety of scheduled official campsite accommodation and instead, had taken to riding until almost dark and then trying to find someplace, anyplace, to stay.

It's interesting that, some of the most memorable moments from our trip occurred when we took this approach. Sure, at the time there were also moments of concern when it appeared we would be able to find nowhere to pitch a tent. Or the concern we had having pitched a tent on the local soccer field, thinking that we may be awoken to late practise. This approach meant we had experiences we would otherwise would not have. We slept in a yet to be completed house and were invited to the owners friends restaurant, we slept on the aforementioned soccer pitch, on secluded beaches, on farms. We had to follow speeding cars to their 'accommodation', we saved money by free camping, we felt the worry before we found our place for the night, and relief when we did.

And if we took the safer option the fact is, we would know no better. We wouldn't really know or understand what we missed out on. We would have had a wonderful trip anyway. I guess that's the problem with stepping away- by staying where you are, you can be certain of the outcome, and most of the time, the outcome is not a bad one at all. Why would you risk that?

The thing is for me, I keep getting the Homer shock. Both ways. The shock of the safe route and how I know that may leave me feeling that something is missing. And the shock of taking risks and the upside that appears to have always brought me.

I remember times where I did something different as moments when I was interested, having fun, focused, really alive. And, even if you consider all the rational things you perhaps should, like money and health, well, it all turned out fine. Like, even now, having turned down full time, secure employment for doing things I care about and trying to work it out looks like it will leave us with plenty of money for next year.

Yet, I still get Homer shock when another idea of risk is considered. What happens if? Will we have enough money? What if this goes wrong? It all seems too hard! So you keep going to the same old thing, still getting nothing (or a negative consequence) and still don't learn. Zap, zap, zap.

Will you really learn?

DO.

Rant over...