The Theology of Adventure

I’ve been to Timbuktu, scaled mountains in the rain
A hundred miles I walked the Serengeti Plain
I sat with tribal healers and I learned my spirit name

High in the mountains of the great Alaska Range
I felt a sense of awe, a coming of age
I learned to mountaineer cross Mt McKinley’s glacial face

Some would say I’m lacking sense

In my defense
The unexamined life is not worth living
In my defense
To learn about survival and forgiving
I turn to the wilderness
In my defense

As you already know, I had to take my leave
To join the South Pole Expedition where I skied
750 miles in -40 Degrees

The sheer audacity of this might make you smile
Harvard Divinity field study in the wild
But you can’t fly a featherbed down wisdom’s lonely aisle

Hard lessons learned as recompense

In my defense
The unexamined life is not worth living
In my defense
The quest for meaning might be never-ending
I’ve known failure and success

It’s so much sweeter on the summit
As a shared experience
Out on the streets or in the wild
Life is perilous
There’s not much you can rely on
So just try to keep your eye on

My Defense