The Role of Shared Experience in Relationship

When I used to do more whitewater kayaking - it was always cool to meet up with other paddlers - you were instantly connected because well - we're a rare breed and engaging danger somehow bonds people. A shared experience in dealing with any obstacle somehow builds or cements relationships. Climbing rock or ice is the same thing, once you've trusted another person with your life - there is a connection that stays with you. What does danger do to relationships?

The previous quote actually comes from a response I submitted from a previous blogpost. How does a shared experience of going through struggle, trouble, or danger if you will unite people? If you think of the significant friends you have developed over the years, there is always a story that captures that relationship. Something that makes you laugh or cry when you recall it or share it with another.

Remember when...you broke your arm? you wiped out over that jump? I lost control of my dad's truck two days after passing my drivers' test and ended up going through a ditch full of snow & water? When we traveled to Israel and our bus window exploded because of some Palestinian throwing a rock at us? When we paddled the White River? When we climbed Mt. Jacques Cartier? When we paddled the Ocoee River? When we mountain biked Tsali in North Carolina? When we saw those northern lights at Red Rock?

Each of those queries are real stories about my life that I share with someone else. Each of those stories helped shape who we are both as individuals but more importantly as friends. There is a camaraderie that exists on a heavenly plane it seems when we go to war together as soldiers, when we take on a wild descent with a bike or kayak, when we face danger head on together! Band of Brothers is my all-time favorite mini-series which captures how men become brothers through facing the trials of life & death on the battlefield of world war two.

What events took place in your life to make you the man or woman you are today?

My guess is that other people were involved in those events.

What stories & what relationships have shaped you?

One of my key aims in life is to live a full life! A life marked by adventure, by passion, by relationships, by stories, by wide-eyed wonder! Isn't that what explore play is all about?