This morning, I found myself thinking about the way we often assign completely different meanings to a single word or concept.
And then we tend to fall into a pattern of falsely believing that our definition is the same as everyone else's.
Specifically, I found myself thinking about this notion of a person being ”adventurous.”
Over the years, I've had more than a few people tell me that I'm ”pretty dull and unadventurous.” But what does that really mean?
Sure enough, I may have no particular desire to jump out of a perfectly good airplane, nor do I have much desire to go backpacking through some largely unexplored tropical jungle, nor am I interested in diving with sharks, nor am I likely to engage in endless experimentation with increasingly exotic psychotropic drugs.
By many measures each of the preceding represent something either ”risky” or ”adventurous,” right?
But here's the rub — as well as what gave rise to my writing this post — the very same people who think I am ”not adventurous” seem to think that it's insanely risky and slightly crazy that I'm involved in something as fringe dwelling as cryptocurrency, and they can't imagine that I would willingly eat the exotic delicacies originating in that very same unexplored tropical jungle where they wanna go backpacking!
Specifically, I remember a friend who was into "extreme climbing" and thought I was a bit "boring and safe" for not wanting to go (this was a LONG time ago!)... yet he was virtually terrified that I might drag him to my favorite Vietnamese restaurant where I might order something like octopus stew and he didn't recognize any of the food. Here was a guy willing to hang from the underside of a cliff by his fingertips, but anything other than a ham sandwich or a granola bar was "scary."
See what I mean, about having different meanings assigned to a single word or concept?
So what is it we are really saying when we look at somebody and declare that they are either ”a risk taker” or ”not adventurous?”
I expect we're simply saying that this person is willing to do something we cannot visualize ourselves doing, under any conditions.
It doesn't necessarily have anything to do with ”adventure” in a general sense, it just has to do with individual preferences and phobias. I hate the idea of broken bones and torn tendons; other other people are terrified of food poisoning (just to use the examples from above).
So when things like this come up, perhaps we owe it to ourselves to communicate clearly and to explore what exactly is being said, rather than jump to any conclusions that our choices are being labeled as some kind of character defect!
Thanks for reading and have a great remainder of your day!
How about YOU? Have you ever been called "boring" or conversely a "daredevil?" Did it seem like the statement actually made SENSE? Or was it more likely a miscommunication? Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!
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Created at 20211221 14:36 PST
0445/1689
