Adventure.. the pursuit of the unknown.. working toward some larger, perhaps unattainable goal. I had a conversation with someone once at a previous job about the fact that my time off doesn’t really resemble what most people consider vacation. While everyone else would focus their time off on relaxing and drinking on beaches, I would return from time off with stories of sleepless weekends, non-stop multi-sport races of 40+ hours. Day trips that start at 3 am and finish at midnight. Sleeping in the drivers seat of my car in rest stop parking lots, or on the beach to prep for a sunrise departing kayak trip. The exhaustion of those endeavours was my relaxation, a way to disconnect from the everyday and reconnect with something more valuable.
A few years ago, a friend came to me after a stretch of time I’d spent travelling the Alberta rockies and told he found inspiration in my adventures. He told me he looked forward to seeing the photos and hearing the stories, and that it was helping him on his journey of weight loss and fitness to change his life for his infant daughter. The conversation had a disproportionate impact on me at the time, and a few months later even moreso, when he passed away suddenly after a routine knee surgery. I think about him often, especially when I’m out exploring or adventuring.
Ok.. So.. why? What was the inspiration behind “chasing windmills?”
1/ A mountaineering book, the autobiography of a French chap called Lionel Terray, called “Conquistadors of the Useless.” A important aspect of his reflection is that the pursuit of adventure isn’t about the destination or the achievement, it’s about what we gain from the process.
2/ A quote from the late Hendrix Coetzee, a South African who was one of the top adventure whitewater kayakers in the world until his tragic death in 2010 on a river expedition in central Africa.
“We try and justify what we do. The fact is, what we do is unusual. But why this? … There are other things I can be, but this is what I should be.”
– Hendri Coetzee
3/ A short film called “When We Were Knights,” celebrating the life of B.A.S.E jumper Ian Flanders and his friendship with Matt Blank. In the film, while discussing the loss of Ian, Matt refers to the concept of “chasing windmills” as the default societal reaction to a lack of understanding of why they would take such risks. But it’s obvious there’s more to it. They found a genuine life that was true to who they were.
To break it down further, two definitions:
i/ The legal definition of “chasing windmills” is to pursue something in vain.
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ii/ The metaphoric expression “tilting at windmills” alludes to the hero of Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote (1605), who rides, lance at full tilt (poised to strike) against a row of windmills, which he mistakes for evil giants.
OK.. so.. why?
For me, thinking of the phrase “chasing windmills,” supplemented by the context of these iconic adventurers and explorers, helps maintain a perspective of trying to live each day for the day, to avoid focusing so much on the future that I lose sight of the experience of getting there. It reminds me of friends and family I’ve lost over the years, some considerably more tragic than others, and grounds me in the idea of how lucky I am to be able to do the things I do. Chasing windmills, as a concept in my life, is the pursuit of adventure for adventure’s sake, with no expectations beyond the enjoyment of the process.
Chasing Windmills 