One man had many adventures throughout his life–traversing great peaks, paddling wide rivers, hunting big game, falling in love, falling out of love, knowing the distant cities of many men, befriending familiars great and small, and achieving an uncommon level of satisfaction through it all.Another man sought these same adventures yet expressly for the reason of posting them on his social media page in order to prove to others that he, too, is an adventurer. No one but a select few companions were aware of the former man’s exploits. He died long ago as a much-loved and venerated figure in his family.

The other still lives today as a common pretender, haunting your local cultural sights in the latest rugged fashion, gripping in one very soft hand a copy of Theodore Roosevelt’s Hunting Trips of a Ranchman. On the way home from his university he stops at the cemetery to pay respects to the celebrated man, who  in life was his grandfather. He asks himself, “How can I be like you?”

But nobody is able to answer.