Adventure is required. In this short life we lead, we all have different requirements. Everyone needs the minimal basics: Food, water, love. But beyond that, we all make it varying levels up Maslow’s Pyramid. For some of us, finding a stable job and raising a happy family is sufficient. For others, we need to travel the world, visit different cultures, and try different foods. Yet others will need to start their own businesses, attempt to build an empire, or write that great book or song. Concretely, the manifestation of what we each all individually require may differ. But the through-line is there, plain as day: Adventure.
Adventure is pushing forth into the unknown and coupled tightly with its younger sibling, Hope. Those are the two aspects in life we need most because they keep things fresh and challenging. They keep us going, curious about what the future holds but is not yet known. There needs to always be one new challenge around the corner, one new monster to defeat. Else, what is it all for?
Existing is not living. Existing is trudging through every day in a small provincial town with only a single bookshop. It’s working in the cubicle farm, day-in and day-out with soulless eyes and a thousand-yard stare, punching the clock where every minute feels like an hour. Where your heart should be… only a void; you think, but you do not feel. You are clever, but you are not kind. But as the great Charlie Chaplin once reminded us, “You are not cattle! You are men! You have the love of humanity in your hearts!” Humans are not meant to sit on our asses for nine hours a day in small enclosed spaces! To stare at little glowing screens! We are not machines! We are men!
Also, can we please appreciate for a moment the sheer lunacy of Michael Bay’s genius? This movie was already hitting on all cylinders for me but when Ben Affleck engages the Gatling machine guns on the Armadillo (which for some reason they lugged into outer space, onto the asteroid) and shoots his way outta the shuttle, I just completely lost it. This is unquestionably the greatest film in the history of cinema. Unquestionably.
