The people in the park at this hour were the usual sort. Tennis players, moms with strollers, a jogger, a dog walker. And then there was me. Awkwardly out of place with a film camera, uncombed hair, and dressed in filthy clothes. I got out of the car I had only just learned to drive, and jumped the parks fence as quickly as I could, (drawing way more attention than I had expected). I bolted into a creek, sacrificing the pair of new vans on my feet to the dirty water that flooded into the spillway, and, into a massive tunnel covered with graffiti. It was a history of that place, the artistic of expression of the nameless citizens of my town, artist pseudonyms achieving the fame these individuals had forsaken in order to share their art. It was the first graffiti tunnel I had ever seen, and I would return to over 100 times through the next two years. It inspired every adventure I would take around the Bay Area through out high school.
History favors exploration. It is a facet of human growth that is displayed in innovations across all mediums, a drive that runs uninhibited throughout the course of history. It is beautiful. There is something about exploration that establishes a sensation of togetherness with everything around you, it is quite literally the things that memories are made of. When exploring a place, you give that place an observer, an individual interpreter of the universe, which gives that place a story, it brings it to life. Maybe it brings it into consciousness. Giving that region of the universe that you knew existed in theory an indisputable proof of presence. Giving it, perhaps the best gift of all, reality.
As the globe is conquered by man, we have shifted our explorations outward, into space, deeper into the mind, into the world of electronics, all of which are equally beautiful and incredible areas of exploration. Theirs is an exploration of possibility, not of existence. Exploring existence becomes harder and harder when everything is seen, and every place explored.
The art of exploring possibility persists however. Existing in ventures of the top molecular biologists, physicists, and computer technicians of the day. Top tier medical facilities and schooling institutions across the world are dedicating everything to this concept. Quite an impressive feat. A feat we forget that even we as individuals are completing everyday. Every waking second of existence is nothing but exploring possibility. As confusing as it sounds it is quite simple, it is the phrase "Anything is possible" applied as a lifestyle thesis. Since anything is possible, all we are doing throughout our lives is exploring possibility. We as people spend every waking second on the frontier of our consciousness, of our education, of our social stance. That same region chased by the Steve Jobs' and Albert Einsteins of the world. The space between what was and is, and what might be next. I think we forget that sometimes.
So next time monotony looms, or when boredom approaches, remember that idea. We spend all of our lives exploring possibility. It is the driving idea behind the concept of a future, it is our navigating principle in remembering our pasts. Life is an adventure, treat it like one.
Stay curious friends.
