Snow-capped mountains, evergreen forests, faraway cities, hiking all day on a trail miles away from the nearest sign of civilization – those are the sorts of things that comes to my mind when I think of the word “adventure.” It’s a term that pops up just about everywhere you turn lately, and it seems to carry with it this grand, if unspoken, promise of mystery and profound self-discovery and ultimate fulfilment. The word “adventure” almost seems too big to grasp, like a thick fog in a mountain valley – it’s clearly there, you can see it all around you, maybe even feel it, but you can’t quite reach out and touch it. You definitely can’t throw a lasso around it and or tame it in any way.

But maybe we should try to define adventure. Maybe it needs to be reined in a little bit. Because the current, indefinite nature of the term “adventure” might be leading some folks to take their quest for adventure a bit too far. For example, in my last post, I discussed the relationship between adventure and risk in the context of some modern stories and movements. I hope that I thoroughly established what adventure is not, namely, adventure is not the pursuit of unnecessary risks. That’s just foolishness.

So then, what IS “adventure?” How do we define this buzzword that’s tossed around social media these days almost as much as the term “selfie?” And how do we define...