On Adventure

In an article in the New York Times, I came across a word which describes the human need to seek novelty — Neophilia. While the characteristics of a neophiliac do not entirely describe me, the love for novelty does. This love and need brings about two important and mutually inclusive concepts that resonate through every human endeavor: Curiosity and Exploration. Curiosity is the trait we should admire most in ourselves and in other people (despite the misused proverb). If curiosity is the cause, exploration is the effect. To explore is to experience new things and learn, which gives rise to more curiosity. Experiencing new things not only has a meditative quality that serves as an incentive, but it is what makes the experience itself more meaningful.  And so we Travel Expanding my world can only happen when I actually explore it, participate in it, and engage with it. By leaving my comfort zone and learning what is out there — the places, their people, their

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Chess, Thoughts, and Sore Muscles

Growing up, I remember a  nice wooden chess board we had in our house that had green felt on the inside where the wooden chess pieces were stored. I would always play my dad, and would always lose. It wasn’t the winning or the losing that mattered much to me though, it was that each time I played, I got to “see” more and more of what was going on. There was some revelation in each movement of each piece that expanded my mind, and I could actually feel it happening. You learn to make sacrifices, you learn to think ahead, you learn that there is always something to protect; and that there is always a deep sense of regret with hasty moves. That motto “No Regrets” ought to be preambled with “Only with Prudence”. I’ve been playing a lot of chess during this deployment out in Africa, so much that I’ve noticed a large improvement in my game from

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