Discover

We all live, but what makes you excited to be alive? I have a theory that discovery is a common denominator to making the majority of us feel alive. To some discovery is achieved by reading a good book, others by defying death on a bungee cord, and to the rest of us, something in-between. For me, discovery is my adventure. Discovering a place I’ve never been before, discovering something new about myself, discovering new knowledge, discovering a treasure in the midst of the mundane. Sometimes the discovery is long sought, sometimes it is a sudden surprise, all the time it is exciting.

The adventure is not in the things I have discovered, but in the next discovery. The next discovery is why Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492, why Lewis and Clark signed on the “Voyage of Discovery”, the Wright brothers went to Kitty Hawk and why men have walked on the moon.

A component of my theory is that discovery can’t sit on the shelf, it has to be experienced new. An old adventure is no adventure at all. Most of the books that have fed my thinking now sit on the shelf, their influence over. The places I have discovered I don’t really need to go to again except to reminisce. The treasures I have placed on the shelf cease to interest me before long. Discovery needs to be a current affair..

Now I can’t go treasure hunting every day and I can’t travel as often as I like, nor does my wife want me to defy death daily, especially when she is with me. That is why I do pick up one book daily and read it again and again. In it I discover something new every day. At my last count, I numbered 40 examples of this same book in my library. I have read this book of discovery from cover to cover now over 27 times. I learn new things, go to distant lands, ponder the infinite and discover truths I find no where else. This book doesn’t rest on the shelf but travels daily, in my heart and my mind. My discoveries are limited only by the time and effort I give to searching out the words of this book. My drive to discover from this book is fed by who the book is about. With this book I am a life-long learner, a perpetual student and an adventurous sojourner.

Many people have passed this book over, mistaking it for the mundane when it is the treasure hidden in the field. Many come near to finding its bounty but place it on the shelf, closing the door to discovery. However, many have discovered what I have discovered and I would also say have discovered more than I have discovered and yet have not exhausted the adventure. You know which book I am speaking of, the book of books, the best seller of all time, the most documented, most studied, most debated, most praised, most criticized, most published, most translated most read book in the history of the world. I urge you, reader, begin your adventure of discovery.