Far over the misty mountains cold
To dungeons deep and caverns old
We must away, ere break of day,
To find our long-forgotten gold.

• J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit

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I can well imagine this as one of the Misty Mountains that the Dwarves described in their somber but hopeful song as they sat around Bilbo Baggins' parlour room that fateful night of the Unexpected Party, blowing smoke rings and dreaming of lost treasure, ignoring the dragon in the room.

Adventure is most enticing in imagination and the achievement of it most certain in memory - it's the actual doing of the thing that can be troublesome. Mountains are the easiest to cross when they first appear on the horizon, and the most crossable when you reach the other side. Living an adventure is at best tedious and tiring, but when we dream it up beforehand or recall it afterwards we don't think about the bleary-eyed sleepless nights, the blisters in the boots or of being caught in a storm of misgivings. You only ask "why am I doing this again?" when you're doing it. When the adventure is over the hardships fade away again and we remember the highlights.

We know all this from experience: we aren't blind to our shortsightedness, and yet many of us never stop chasing after adventure, be it the exciting kind or daily grind. We seek jobs and a career, even though most of us don't want to work for a living. We chase after love and friendship knowing full well how much work and pain may be involved in building strong relationships. We scale the highest and hardest mountains, though climbing Everest or Annapurna are as far from fun as they are from sea level.

We seem to know instinctively that everything worth doing requires sacrifice. We often talk about wanting to be happy and have fun, but those aren't real goals, and certainly not successful ones. The best we can hope for is a little happiness along the way, a rest stop on the highway of life. Driving towards a worthy goal gives a satisfaction far deeper than mere happiness. Even if the road is bumpy, at least you're going somewhere.

That's what I think. What do you think? And what is a worthy goal? What adventure is worth the present pain for future gain? You tell me!

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Those are my tired ramblings for the day. The mountain in the photo is in fact part of the Sierra Nevada range in California, near Convict Lake, and is not located in Middle-Earth, although you're free to pretend that it is.