Adventure

Several weeks ago, as I rode back from Massachusetts to Vermont, I listened to an anecdote relayed by a friend. A friend of that friend had volunteered to visit with senior citizens and spent one afternoon talking with an older woman.

The volunteer asked about the woman's life and engaged in discussion about the events of the day - typical smalltalk designed to make the woman feel she had someone to talk to about whatever she desired.

The woman interrupted an exchange by peering at the volunteer and asking a direct question.

"Do you have adventures?"

The volunteer paused before replying. The volunteer was young and relatively carefree, thus assuming that the details of the current life were probably seen as interesting or exciting to someone in the last stages of existance.

"I suppose I do, yes."

The woman continued to peer as she spoke.

"Let me tell you this. I had people around me when I was younger. And I had adventures. Those people? They are gone now. I am alone.

"But I have my adventures. No matter what else happens in my life, the adventures I have are all mine. I have them with me now."

As I prepared to leave the apartment this morning and, after finishing up tasks in Vermont, embark on the weekend festivities, I thought about who that woman was. I wondered what she looked like, what adventures she had had in her youth.

I have my adventures. And I am about to add more to my collection.