Alfred Tennyson’s poem Ulysses tells the story of its namesake, a king who is discontented upon returning home from his travels. Even though he is reunited with his beloved family, he could not stand the mundanity of everyday life in his kingdom.
He longs for the thrill of exploring foreign lands and learning about their cultures. He even yearns for the danger of fighting in wars with his army.
With that, Ulysses resolves to spend the rest of his days “sailing beyond the sunset, and the baths of all the western stars, until I die.”
In our own ways, Tennyson’s poem speaks to all of us. We all have some part of Ulysses in ourselves. It’s the part of us that hungers for adventure, for risk, and living on the edge.
But Tennyson’s poem leaves much room for curiosity. Does Ulysses make the right choice by spending his last days far away from home and the people he cares about? To what extent does our hunger for adventure become unhealthy? How do we temper our hunger for adventure, if it needs any tempering?
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“Hi I’m Johnny Knoxville. Welcome to Jackass!”
The same iconic catchphrase kicks off every installment of Jackass, a franchise of films in which a band of close friends perform stunts and pranks. The catchphrase is proclaimed by the group’s de facto leader, Philip John Clapp, or better known as Johnny Knoxville.
Ever since its start as a show on MTV, Jackass has had its massive share of fame and notoriety for its absurd and death-defying performances.
Some of their most famous stunts include being catapulted into the sky in a poo-filled porta potty, wrestling with live anacondas in a ball pit, playing a game of tetherball with a beehive, and taking a lie detector test — while being strapped in a chair, being doused in honey and littered with salmon, and being subjected to a bear’s presence, and electrocution. (Of course, I’m only mentioning the stunts that are relatively safe for work.)
To say that the Jackass crew is lucky to be alive at this point would be an understatement. Over the course of two decades, they have endured a litany of life-threatening injuries, from broken bones to concussions, all for the sake of the audience’s laughter.
Every Jackass film made was declared to be the last one. That was, until the next film was made.
In the ten years prior to the making of the latest installment, Jackass Forever, Johnny Knoxville particularly couldn’t shake off his cravings for adrenaline. Quietly, he had been emailing himself ideas that he had written for new stunts, under the subject line “Jackass 4 Ideas”.
Eventually, Knoxville convinced the crew to make the film a reality. Though, they had legitimate concerns. With their age creeping in, it would take only a simple accident for the film to go terribly wrong.
Nevertheless, Jackass Forever turned out to be the franchise’s most successful film yet. Perhaps the reason that it has resonated with audiences so well is that it is hilariously endearing to see that the same friends, who are now middle-aged, still haven’t grown up all that much. Yet, it is also somewhat saddening to see how the costs of such a daring lifestyle are noticeably catching up to the crew.
One particular stunt in the film that is rather harrowing than funny, is where Knoxville gets rammed by a bull, sending him to flip skyward and land on his head. Consequently, he broke his wrist and ribs, and had a concussion which severely damaged his brain, almost to the point of no recovery. It took him many months to recuperate physically, and nearly a whole year of struggling with depression.
During this period, Knoxville was forced to reevaluate his priorities. With a family, and a head full of grey hair, he had to accept the fact that the lifestyle that had brought him so much joy, was now inching ever closer to killing him.
Following his doctor’s orders, he decided that he was no longer fit for major stunts. As he remarked, “I think I got a little addicted to it, to the point where I scrambled my brains. I put my family through enough. I don’t think I have anything else to prove.”
Yet, it never truly got easier to give up the life that he loved. Despite all the pain and injuries he had suffered, he “honestly enjoyed it.”
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Ranulph Fiennes, one of the world’s greatest explorers, likened the allure of adventure to the urge that a smoker might feel to have just one more cigarette. The more you try to shun such thoughts, the more tempting they seem.
As he writes in his biography of another famous explorer, Ernest Shackleton, “No matter all the discomfort and failure you might have endured, the urge to return is mesmeric…The memories of gangrene, crotch rot and frostbite (I lost the ends of five fingers) are eclipsed by the rose-tinted spectacles through which the prospect of a grand adventure is viewed. As another American once said, ‘Nothing is more responsible for the good old days than a bad memory.’”
The point of this article isn’t to resign you to a completely drab and dreary life, or to discourage you from going after adventurous pursuits. It’s for you to recognize when you might be addicted to such pursuits — that you might have an unhealthy dependency on them for you to feel good, or to feel that your life is worthwhile.
When I say “adventure”, I’m not only implying doing extraordinarily crazy things like launching yourself into the air in a porta potty, or risking your life on an expedition around the world.
This applies just as much to commoner forms of novel experiences. For some people, it’s going on frequent vacations to escape their miserable jobs. Or getting every new iPhone that gets released. Or doing drugs. And for some, it’s serial dating. Or worse, some get into affairs.
Obviously, going down the path of adventure addiction is one way to have an ultimately unfulfilling life.
Going back to Tennyson’s poem, Ulysses is arguably addicted to the adventure of traversing other lands. He is addicted to the fame and respect that he gets for being an explorer and a warrior, so much so that he is willing to leave behind his family and homeland for good.
But of course, there are no definitive answers as to his ending, whether or not he regrets his life choices. Because it’s just finite art.
Though, in real life, Ernest Shackleton hero-worshipped Ulysses, and interestingly, mimicked the same trajectory as the mythical character of his favorite poem. He too left his family for good to explore the world, because he didn’t have much of a life at home.
As he wrote in a letter to his wife Emily, “I am no good at anything but being away in the wilds just with men. I feel I am no use to anyone unless I am outfacing the storm in wild lands.”
But unlike in the story of Ulysses, we know that Shackleton died in his ship during his expedition. In his final moments, he was old and ill, despondent, and lonely. Tragically, his legacy and accomplishments were scarcely remembered by a society that was recently traumatized by the first World War.
With all of this being said, how then, do we avoid ourselves from getting addicted to adventure?
The answer, is to build a life that you don’t need to escape from. And this largely has to do with embracing the inevitable boredom of everyday life.
Most, if not all, meaningful pursuits in our lives involve boredom, or doing the same things over and over again. Getting good at any skill requires that you have some form of routine and that you practice regularly. Maintaining romantic relationships and friendships requires constant communication. Being reasonably healthy requires that you follow a decent diet and exercise routine.
Boredom is the path to real fulfillment. Having a deep sense of meaning in your life doesn’t always come from doing extraordinary things, but from doing the ordinary things extraordinarily well.
Along the same line, learn to seek highs or adrenaline fixes in safer and more sustainable ways. You can do this by pursuing careers and hobbies that are best-aligned with your natural interests. And the beauty of this is that it doesn’t have to be fixed to a single activity or role. If you could no longer do one thing for whatever reason, you can always try something else that’s still within your ballpark.
For Johnny Knoxville, knowing that he couldn’t risk another concussion, he has decided to focus more on his acting career. And this allows him to delve deeper into his sensitive side, which was otherwise overlooked or neglected in Jackass.
Though, he still does love stunts and pranks. So, he co-judges a show called The Prank Panel, in which contestants could pitch their prank ideas. And as for Jackass, he has discussed the possibility of still being involved, albeit in a backseat capacity.
Other times, he simply enjoys being a dad at home, and coaching his son’s baseball team. And also making sure that his son doesn’t follow his footsteps.
As we close this article, it’s worth reiterating that it’s good to have some adventure in your life. You should live a little every once in a while, and step out of your usual routines.
But at the end of the day, adventures would lose their meaning if you were to have them all the time, or if you made them your only priority. Which is why life gives you its dash of boredom and mundanity to balance it all out.
Izzat Zailan 