Lewis & Clark, Captain James Cook, Daniel Boone… What comes to your mind when you think about an explorer?
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In a previous article I mentioned –unpleasantly- that I am a professional explorer. Well… that’s what I do: I work as a scientific consultant for aquaculture projects. I have being doing this for more than fifteen years.
I don’t look like those survival experts you see in cable. I don’t eat raw snakes although I enjoy sushi very much. I don’t carry a big knife all the time (I would probably cut myself accidentally) and I don’t wear an Indiana Jones hat (I like those but, my baseball cap is cozier)
I don’t fit the explorer archetype and maybe that’s why I don’t feel too comfortable presenting myself as one. The options are not much of a punch line either. Try this: “…Hello, I am Gustavo and I am a scientific consultant for aquaculture… (Please, wake up)”.
But that was before. I am fine now with people having the wrong idea about what an explorer do. Archetypes are hard to bypass. Actually, as I mentioned in “The time of the hero”, I chose to be an explorer driven by the same idea so, I totally understand why the romantic side of the explorer obscures the real part of it.
Turns out that being an explorer and being and survival expert are two opposite activities. In fact, if an explorer ends up sucking out the moisture from the soil, searching for a water supply, it would probably mean that he/she failed in doing his/her job.
This post is to talk about what the real part of exploring looks like. Don’t run away yet; it actually can be even more interesting than fighting crocodiles (like Crocodile Dundee) and making fire with wood sticks which, in my opinion, has got too much attention altogether.
(I mean: if you have seen one crocodile fight, you may say you have seen them all. They are always basically the same and the truth is that you can’t see much of what happens underneath the water surface anyway).
How can simple exploring become more interesting than watching a survival expert fighting a crocodile?
Here’s what I have learned exploring:
The first thing you have to know is that everyone can become a true explorer because it’s in part of our nature. If someone takes a dive in the pool and states how cold it is. What do you do? It doesn’t matter if you are in the middle of a freezing winter, you will stick your finger to find out. It is part of your nature.
Exploring is the same whether you focus your attention on the outdoors, the urban life or even the world inside of you. It is nothing but seeing… it’s the way you see things that makes you an explorer. There’s a book I read when I was a teenager that stated this in a better way:
“All you need to become a true explorer is a mindful attention and some frugal science (yes, this is where the name comes). Everything else is accessory”.
I did not catch the meaning back then. I think I’ve got it now.
So, again, how can simple exploring be far more interesting than crocodile fighting? It becomes interesting when the thing you focus on is your own life, your deep essentials, yourself.
Every self is the most interesting topic for everyone; and that’s how simple exploring becomes really interesting. You don’t have to travel deep to the Amazons. Dare to travel to the most intriguing site of all you will experience. Dare to explore within.
Hi there! I’m Gustavo and Frugal Science is about helping you rediscover your exploring nature and enjoying the benefits of looking life in a different way. Anybody can become a true explorer –it’s our nature-, all you need is a mindful attention and some frugal science.
Cool ideas. Can I use some of your work for parents in our new Kidzter site?
Love this post, Gustavo. I really like the point at the very end when you talk about the “most intriguing site of all”…within! Wonderful!
Steve Rice recently posted..Got Clarity?
Your post made me laugh – love the part about not being able to see too much under the surface of the water in a crocodile fight! And you’re right – we can all be explorers if we dare. Some choose not to and live a life on the surface. But true explorers need to dig deeper. And become more enlightened the further that they go. Awesome post, Gustavo. It’s very thought-provoking. Thank you! ~ Suerae
Suerae Stein recently posted..Thoughtful Thursday… Beauty
I like this. “Dare to explore within.” So elegant. I think, as a society, our external focus can be held to blame for so much that is wrong in the world. Exploring within is tangential to healing the hurt within, which is the only way – in my opinion – to find authentic joy Happy exploring, Gustavo!
Desi recently posted..So Much Pretty
Hi, Ann!
Sure yo can. All my work is under Creative Commons license. You only have to keep the attributions.
Gustavo| Frugal Science recently posted..Shape your life like Michelangelo.
Hi, Steven!
I am glad you liked it because that’s precisely the point I will be working in this blog in further times. It’s hard to find funny situations for cartoons, though.
Gustavo| Frugal Science recently posted..Shape your life like Michelangelo.
Hi, Suerae!
I am glad it made you laugh about the crocodile fighting piece. I think exploring is not much distant from what you do when you take your pictures: you have to keep your mind open to detect what’s new and what’s beautiful.
Gustavo| Frugal Science recently posted..Why simple exploring is far more interesting than crocodile fighting.
Hi, Desi!
Great insight! When it comes to healing, it is definitely much easier when you detect that is causing the pain, and for that matter, exploring can be very useful. You’re right.
Gustavo| Frugal Science recently posted..Why simple exploring is far more interesting than crocodile fighting.
[...] recently wrote about this beautiful quote by Mark Twain where the author encourages us to “…Sail away from the safe harbor”. Well, if you want to become a true explorer, this is the first thing you have to learn: keep your [...]
Love this post. I think to me it’s like you’re simplifying things–or opening up people’s eyes to look deeper at something, to find the true meaning of it, just like what you did with the term ‘explorer’ itself. I don’t know whether that’s what you’re thinking when you’re writing this post, but when I read it, that’s what I thought.
Forgive me if I’m wrong.
But really, I enjoy this post. You make us feel like everybody can be their own explorer. And from that you make me feel like I ought to enjoy everything that I do with this exploring thingy. Okay, now I’m starting to babbling all over the place. I’m just trying to say that this is one nice post!
Hi Dian,
You have got it just right. Everyone can be their own explorer with just a little practice. Is the main idea I am aiming to in this blog but it is still a work in progress. Initially, this blog was meant to display my cartoons (like you display yours) but, eventually, it kinda drifted to exploring in a natural way.
Gustavo recently posted..How to tell if you are keeping you eyes open
[...] this memorable quote from Mark Twain which I have partially posted in a previous article about exploring (and mentioned it in a couple more), this time at its full [...]
[...] I experienced working as a professional explorer and learned what exploring was really about, I realized that the lessons written in that book was [...]