Bruce Chatwin, Sir Richard Francis Burton, Tim Cahill. Jumping off into the unknown, without anxiety over the consequences, was a young man s game, he thought. I agree that it is the young male adventurer who is fabled in song and story. The young woman who runs off to embrace adventure is less storied, less enshrined in the iconography of the culture. But the conversation got me wondering.
Young men take risks.
Risks must be reduced and stability maintained. Maybe it s a generational thing. I think of myself, not slowing down but coming into my prime, eager to open up new paths for myself, even if it s scary. In my twenties, I wanted desperately to learn how to sail a perfect metaphor for freedom and independence. My first husband Peter got it together and sailing we went.