Good Friday morning! Let’s talk adventuring…
Way back in 2007, I took a trip to Vietnam—by the way, never go to Vietnam in July—with a medical mission team comprised of about a hundred people of varying ages.
I’d never been out of the country before except for a quick trip to a small town just south of the border when I was in college in LA.
In Vietnam, my job was working in the medical labs we set up in various places to bring needed care to the locals. Hundreds of people walked to our locations to see a doctor, sometimes carrying their children and their elderly.
The trip changed me. Let’s just say I was glad to arrive back home (where there are no spiders as big as my hand), but I’ve never forgotten the sights, sounds, and smells. One thing I particularly remember was the light-up-the-room smiles on faces even in the midst of intense suffering. Amazing!
TKZers—what is the best adventure you’ve ever had? And how did it change you?
“An adventure is an unusual, exciting, and sometimes risky or dangerous experience, activity, or journey into the unknown.”–https://dictionary.cambridge.org
In 2009, my friend Judy Sanger talked me into producing my three-act play, “Midnight in the Temple of Isis,” in Santa Barbara. I was living in Palos Verdes at that time. I agreed, but I’m not sure why. Probably because it seemed like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and Judy volunteered to help me.
It was a tremendous amount of work: Reworking the script as a semi-staged reading (adding a narrator), arranging for a performance venue (The Faulkner Gallery), arranging for rehearsal and audition space, designing and printing scripts, programs, and posters, distributing posters, holding auditions and rehearsals, acquiring props, arranging for food to serve after rehearsals and during intermission, hiring a videographer, etc.
Judy’s partner, Les, arranged for grips to handle seating, and fabricated the stunning Anubis mask (which I discovered in our garage this week.) My friend Nancy helped me buy the intermission food and distribute the posters. The main characters provided their own costumes. Judy and I did everything else.
We were still casting right up to curtain time (tho there are no curtains in the Gallery). The play came off with only minor problems. After it was all over, and Les and his people were putting away the chairs, a friend from Ojai, Susan, approached me and said, “Jeff, this must have been an educational experience. What did you learn?” I replied, “To write one-act plays.” I’ve written no more three-act plays, since.
The play, a classical work based on ancient Roman customs and events, was challenging to write, presenting the story in a way that would seem credible to a modern audience. It could not be performed today in our “offense-seeking” world. It was truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Good morning, Jeff…
Thanks for dropping by–your experience indeed sounds like an adventure!
I also wrote a play which was produced, but not in a venue like yours. It was at my church, I had lots of help, and it was my first experience at writing an actual story. I probably will never do it again, but I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything on God’s green earth.
Have a great weekend!
After college, I went on an adventure in the jungle…New York City. I just packed a big suitcase and went there to pursue an acting career, a Southern California boy without any contacts in the city. I had a great aunt in New Jersey who let me stay with her a few weeks while I sought a place to live. Which turned out to be a rooming house on West 23rd Street run by nuns who acted kindly toward this Protestant wanderer. For 15 cents I could buy a hard boiled egg for breakfast. I got a job as a temp typist. There was an Off Broadway theater company across the street, and I walked in and said I was an actor, and they hired me to move scenery for their current production and said I could audition for the next–Othello. I was cast in the plum role of “Attendant.” And that’s how my legendary theatrical career began. Every day in New York seemed like a little adventure of its own.
Hi, Jim!
“Every day in New York seemed like a little adventure of its own.”
That’s how I felt when I moved from small-town central WA to Big City LA at the tender age of 18. I’m still surprised that my parents let me do that…they probably knew I’d do it with or without their approval. But, it didn’t take me that long to high-tail it back to the PNW, no sirree Bob!
Have a great day!
Like Jim, my most memorable experience took place in New York City. In 2018, my pal Sue Purvis graciously invited me to go with her to BookExpo where her book was a featured debut. I wrote about the experience in this post: https://killzoneblog.com/2018/06/book-expo-america-2018.html
A writer’s once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that was incredibly exciting, educational, and inspiring.
Good morning, Debbie…
Great post way back when, Debbie! My first out-of-town author conference felt like that to me. I’m sure I was wide-eyed the entire time, and those seasoned writers knew I was a newbie.
Thanks for chiming in, and have a great day!
I’m still waiting. Or there are too many to single out just one. Or it’s still too early for my brain to sift through memories.
Hey, Terry…that’s okay. Drink some more java and come back later, if you want.
“Or there are too many to single out just one.”
I bet…you’ve been everywhere, I think! 🙂
Have a great day…
The summer of 1979. I was in high school. I spent a month in Israel. I can’t go back to some of the places I visited. I climbed Mt. Siani to reach the top at dawn. We read from Exodus 20:1-17, the 10 commandments. We swam in the Red Sea at Sharm el-Shiek. Visited several sights in Judea and Sumaria. The Church of Nazareth. Ein Gedi. The Jordan River. I was able to go to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Jews are now forbidden. The Dome of the Rock is beyond Beautiful. Prayed at the Western Wall. Floated in the Dead Sea.
And there was a week on a Kibbutz. Mostly I weeded cotton and peanut fields. I can’t go back. It is hard to talk about now. On 10/6/2023 the population of Kibbutz Nir Oz was 450. On 10/8, 190. The fields I weeded were on the road between Israel and Gaza.
Good morning, Alan.
“I was able to go to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Jews are now forbidden.” I can’t even process that. 🙁
Your adventure sounds exhilarating and sad at the same time. I hope the memories of it bring you more joy than pain.
Thanks for dropping by this morning, and have a great weekend…
The Temple Mount is where the Dome of the Rock is. When I was there the mosque was closed to non-Muslims during services. Now the entire area is closed. Jerusalem is an interesting city. Different religions control their respective holy sites. An interesting one is that during the Crusades the Patriarch of the Church of the Holy Sepulture locked the church and gave the key to his neighbor. The Ottomans were close and would of killed the clergy. They fled. It was around 1000 CE.
This morning the 5x grandson of that Arab man unlocked the church for the current Patriarch. His family has protected their neighbor for 1200 years.
Wow!
It just feels like there’s a book in there somewhere…
Nir Oz grew water melons. It took me about 2 years to eat water melon without flashbacks. Airel and Kifr Bibas, 4 and 9 months were kidnapped on 10/7 from Nir Oz. They necks were broken by hand while captive in Gaza. Airel was wearing his Batman pajamas. Yoel Levy has been running in marathons in a full Batman suit in the Bibas brother’s memory for the past 3 years. He will be in Chicago for the Chicago marathon in a few weeks.
Sometimes all I can say is “What a sad world we live in.”
Thanks, Alan, for putting skin on what most of us have only heard about.
I spent a year and a half (3 semesters) at the University of Costa Rica while in college. It changed my perspective on so many things. Besides learning the language and about the culture, and seeing both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans for the first time, I experienced the perception people in Central and South America have of “gringos.” (Especially women. Especially blonde women.) Hollywood has done us no favors. Nor has our government. This was in the late 1970s. I gained so much knowledge of political arrogance. Plus it’s a gorgeous country with rain forests, mountains, oceans, and amazing plant and animal life. I worked part-time as a reporter at an English language newspaper so I was able to attend events and speak to people I never would have otherwise. Attending plays and concerts was so much fun (and helped me learn the language.) For our 35th wedding anniversary, I took my husband to Costa Rica so he could see why I loved it so much. Learning Spanish impacted on my journalism career, taking me to border towns like Laredo and El Paso, where I met my husband and learned about the border culture. I highly encourage college kids to become exchange students if they can swing it. It changes your life.
Good morning, Kelly!
“It changes your life.”
Yes, and experiencing other cultures expands our thinking in ways that nothing else can.
The two pictures I included in this post are my absolute favorites from the trip. Those two children had the most expressive eyes–like their entire lives were somehow behind their eyelids, looking back at me. I also remember many older women who would reach out and touch my arm as I passed by them, as if I wasn’t quite human or something. 🙂
Thanks for sharing your adventure with us…and have a great weekend!
Backpacking and riding the trains through 11 countries in Europe was perhaps the most eye-opening experience I’ve had. Seeing the way the United States was depicted on TV in rail stations and airports would make me hate Americans, too—if it were true. We tried to be kind and polite to show the good side of our country, where we’ve found nice, friendly, and caring people in all 50 states, but I’ve never encountered rudeness like we saw there. In our group, we had one who spoke some German, one who spoke Spanish, and two who spoke French, none fluently, but we thought we’d be able to get by. After all, working for years in the National Park Service, we had experience helping foreigners who didn’t know much English. A man who owned a hotel in Austria (and said it came to his family in 1944) told us that everyone could speak English, they were just stubborn.
A conversation with a man in South Africa made a lot clear. I asked him why people were so obsessed with the US. He said, “You don’t understand. When America sneezes, the rest of the world catches cold.”
Hi Becky!
“You don’t understand. When America sneezes, the rest of the world catches cold.” Wow! I could think on that for awhile and never fully understand all of its ramifications.
What an experience…I wonder what that trip would be like if you repeated it in this world we live in today–would it be the same? Would people be nicer, or more rude?
In any case, thanks for dropping by and sharing your adventure with us!
January 16, 1939, Detroit Michigan a boy was born in the second story apartment of his grandfather’s apartment building. That evening the building burned down and the child and mother lost for three days in the medical system.
At 87 I can look back and say the adventure has never stopped. It’s called life.
Good afternoon, Marshall.
All of life is, indeed, an adventure. What a great summation of our discussion today.
We’re glad you’re here to remind us of that today…
🤗
In 2002, my husband and I traveled to Russia twice to adopt our daughter — once for the visit, and the second time for the court appearance. But I’ve also been on a medical mission trip to the Dominican Republic back in the late 1980’s (where my husband proposed), and rafted the Grand Canyon in 2001. Thanks for prompting those amazing memories.
You’re welcome, Michelle!
When I drafted the post, so many memories crowded in. It took awhile to pare many of them out.
Thanks for sharing yours. All three of your adventures sound totally amazing.
Have a good weekend!
MIne waas a planned trip I dreamed of from the time I was in my 40s and raising 4 preteen to teens alone. My dream–riding a motorcycle all over the country. Seeing each state. But, I’d never been on a motorcycle, let alone handled one on my own.
Age 50, I bought my first bike and learned to ride it. The men in the Harley Owners Group of Ft. Lauderdale were taking bets that I’d never learn to ride my ’98 Ultra Classic. Six months later I was doing the Tail of the Dragon with them. I was at the back of the pack, but I didn’t care. I was riding my own bike on an 11 mile stretch of rode with 318 curves. From there I took trips to Las Vegas, Atlanta, Milwaukee (for the 100th anniversary of Harley Davidson.) and then prior to my trip, I went to Sturgis where i learned that I would need a trike for what I wanted to do since I had a tendency to drop my bike when tired.
So I bought a HD trike and traveled for 18 months all over the USA, into Canada and Alaska. By myself. No one wanted to come with me. That trip showed me that I could do whatever I dreamed of doing. I just needed to prepare and then do it. Which is sort of like my writing. I began to write. Then I learned that you don’t know what you don’t know about writing novels until you start taking classes and talking to other writers.
That trip changed my life. I am more confident. I know who I am instead of being what everyone else wanted me to be. And I’m enjoying life more today than I ever have before. I moved away from all my siblings and kids, unwilling to deal with the drama. One did follow me to Arizona, but he is autistic and has learned to not annoy me too much and he’s become a great help with my horses.
You’d think that I would be in the throws of grief still after losing my soulmate in December, but I’m not. Why? He gave me a great secret. Laughter. Enjoy the beauty around you and laugh at least once a day. Be grateful for what little you may have and enjoy your life. Mine wasn’t all the great for way too many years. But that was MY fault for not finding me and doing what was best for me and not everyone else. My trip taught me to take care of me and the rest will fall into place.
Thank you, Barbara, for telling your story.
You inspire me!
Have a good weekend. 😉