Book Rec: The Adventure of Living, by Paul Tournier

"Man...feels his divinity when he commits himself totally in an adventure."

I don’t recall when I discovered Dr. Paul Tournier, but I believe it was via another author quoting his work. I am often led into further readings from a current book that I am consuming. As an aside, reading is wonderful for that very reason. Its like exploring lands with different paths you can take at any point with no barriers to entry. Back to Tournier - he was a Swiss physician from the 19th century who’s relevance doesn’t wane even in 2023. These are the kinds of authors and writings I am drawn to, the ones that are timeless, and in some cases, even prophetic. The Adventure of Living qualifies.

If I’m not mistaken, all of Tournier’s books are relatively short and therefore concise and absorbable. There’s nothing worse than a book full of throw away sentences. However, (this being the longest of his books that I’ve read) not every chapter is a winner for me in this title, as some concepts felt a bit like listening to someone muse and wander around. That’s not to say there isn’t value in that, but it does tend to undermine the quality of any points to be delivered.

Tournier’s work is listed under the Spiritual category, though his Christian faith is both contested and defended by various sides. I’m of the persuasion that regardless of his faith status Dr. Paul is worth listening to. In fact, I believe that about many figures throughout history who held what could be considered “controversial” positions on matters. My short defense of this opinion is, “who cares what goofy ideas people had?” Saying something that is true isn’t less true if that person is possibly mistaken about another topic. Its the proverbial eat-the-meat-spit-out-the-bones approach. Lord knows we are all full of bones. In chatting with a friend about this very thing recently, I stated that Jesus said the way is narrow, yes, but I think we can make it even more narrow with personal and traditional legalism. When we do this we actually lose rich aspects of faith because we eliminate particular voices from the cloud of witnesses. I am not advocating for theological liberalism or defending heretical ideas. But a posture of humility and curiosity that isn’t threatened by conflict and tension is a worthy discipline.

The Adventure of Living expanded my definition of the word. Before this book, my concept of adventure was relegated to exploration and treasure hunting. Now, I see adventure in everything and as the driving force of all that we pursue. I wouldn’t have picked that as the description of what compels us to live, but Dr. Paul has convinced me that adventure makes the most sense. Why do we read and research? Why do we risk things in relationships? Why do we try new things? Why do we observe obligations and duty? Why do we practice faith? Why do we pursue success? Why do we endure failures? Why do we live? The point of this book is to get at what makes us rise from the bed everyday: adventure, but conversely, that the lack of adventure could have us in full Job-mode, lamenting and not moving. The adventure of our lives is deeply personal yet bound up in others, is made up of many mini-adventures along the way, and is ultimately arrested by our inevitable mortality.

Following, are some of the more personally meaningful discoveries from this book.

The idea of “personage” vs. “person” was a new and clarifying one for me. Tournier explains that while we can be successful in measurable ways in our “personage”, i.e. what we project, the visible parts of who we are to the world, our “person”, the invisible, truest parts of us can be atrophied or failing altogether. I know I’ve considered my life as a stage and what people see is just what I perform in front of them while I know off stage, behind the curtain, there’s the rest of the person. I don’t know if that is unavoidable and part of the constraints of our existence. But I know I am striving now to either blend those two people (the personage and the person), or only be an “off stage” person. Tournier’s language confirmed I wasn’t crazy thinking along these categories.

My favorite chapter in the book is The Lessons from Failure. The theme of failure occurs frequently in this volume, as it does in our own lives. Staring failure in its face has been something I’ve been forced to do in the last few years and I’d like to think I’m better for it. The perspective offered is simply not to view failure as an enemy, or as final.

Besides these themes, Tournier has so many heavy hitting one-liners on politics, religion, and relationships throughout that I have to limit my mention of them in an already lengthy post. I will give the Doctor the last word.

There are people who go on indefinitely preparing for life instead of living it. They never feel that they are sufficiently well prepared, or strong enough. They go on studying for one thing after another, adding diploma to diploma, taking endless precautions. They fondly imagine that in this way they are improving their chances of success, but in reality all their effort is merely a compensation for lack of self-confidence. The only result of so much preparation is that their self-doubt increases and their chance of success is less than ever. We often see the same thing in our patients' dreams: It is times leave on a journey, and the dreamer wastes precious time looking for some superfluous item; he packs so much into his suit cases that they will not close; he runs all the way to the station, but his luggage is so heavy and cumbersome that he is late; he gets stuck with his luggage as he tries to pass through the barrier, and the train moves out before his eyes.