Adventurous Dreams an inspiration to dreamers

Rob Alexander – BOW VALLEY
Childhood is a time for dreams.

It’s a time to reach out and, for whatever reason, pluck something from the ether that propels us to want to do something extraordinary.

Even though the dreams we have as children can be tenuous – cut free by circumstances, timing, resources, or even an understanding of our own limitations – they can also be achieved, even the most audacious ones.

But how do you stay the course and live the dream?

According to Jason Schoonover in his new book Adventurous Dreams, Adventurous Lives, which documents the lives and dreams of 120 remarkable adventurer-explorers, the key is to never lose the enthusiasm for what inspires you.

“This book is about people... who dreamed far beyond the familiar – who dreamed of castles in the air and then built them,” Schoonover writes in the preamble.

He chose to document the dreams of adventurers, including former Canmore residents and writing and filmmaking duo Pat and Baiba Morrow, along with people like Buzz Aldrin, Meave Leakey and Jean-Michel Cousteau, as these people “live the most exciting, fascinating, remarkable lives on the planet... For those interested in following dreams, hopefully there’s a lesson therein.”

That lesson can be gained quickly in Schoonover’s 312-page book as there’s a lot of meat in the individual entries, even though each is only two to three pages long, along with a photograph, short biography and a significant quote summing up that person’s philosophy or definition of exploration.

Schoonover asked his subjects to share their A ha! Moment – that moment when they realized what they were meant to do and the obstacles they had to overcome.

As a result, the meat of this book is the inspiration found on practically every page and the realization that the 120 subjects, many of who are often seen as celebrities or even demi-gods, are really just ordinary people with one extraordinary ability: to never let go of what fired their passions at a young age. Their passion is strong enough to feed them throughout their lives.

These are the people who never gave up their childhood dreams and gave in to the fact that sometimes reality can be a downer.

“For most though, it’s the business of getting on with life itself that kills dreams. Nothing buries one under a granite headstone like the weight of having to pay rent and put food on the table,” Schnoover writes.

If you have a dream and you’re struggling to maintain it, the $29.95 spent on Adventurous Dreams, Adventurous Lives, published by Rocky Mountain Books, is money well spent. In fact, it could be the best money-for-value investment you’ve ever made. Dreams can be tough to hang onto, and sometimes a well-placed reminder that
it is not only possible to achieve a dream, but ordinary people can do something extraordinary.

After all, even Buzz Aldrin, who, along with Neil Armstrong, walked on the moon, started off with an epiphany while taking an early flight as wide-eyed youngster.

“I had no idea when I had my first youthful dream of flight that it would take me all the way to the moon – but that’s the power unleashed in following one’s dreams,” Aldrin states in a quote on the cover of the book.