Adventure vs. Experience

Not too long ago during a trip to one of the big city's Half Price Bookstores, I picked up a college literature textbook, a giant anthology like I had in college but sold as soon as the semester was over. The one I had in college was actually a British Literature anthology, an incomprehensible beast written in Old English that made me realize that I wanted to change my major from English to ... to ... something else, anything else, but what? I couldn't decide at the time, so I switched to a major called "liberal arts." That only lasted a semester and then I switched to journalism. Turns out it didn't really make a lick of difference after all, except that I sometimes wonder what switching majors caused me to miss out on; hence, the interest in consuming the college literature textbook. Most of the anthologies have some sort of category, like "American Literature," and the above-mentioned "British Literature," but this one is just "Literature." So far I have only read the introduction, but am getting something out of it. One part of it included a woman's commentary about the difference between "adventure" and "experience." She thinks an adventure is a waste because the adventures she's put herself through (mountain climbing) have resulted in sore muscles and injuries and not much else to show for them except for stories that she can tell her friends later (and her friends have stories about taller mountains, scarier wildlife, and sorer muscles). I suppose she was comparing the idea of a treacherous, dangerous event to just the sort of life that most people have --- the day-to-day experiences that cause us to shuffle through life a little bit at a time --- errands, reading, cooking, gardening. I thought back to college, again, about the time I went bridge swinging with a boy I just met. He said he'd do it if I did it. I jumped first, swung off the bridge by a climbing rope, jumped as I should into the river below, and swam to shore, and I think that's when he fell in love with me. (Some good reason.) Then we ended up married with children. Exhilaration. That's why we love adventure.