A successful life is defined by filling every moment with adventure and will

Evidence

I made a solemn vow that I would be the designated bon voyage party hostess even though I hate going to a party when I’m not in the mood, let alone throwing one. As it turned out Clifford had more than enough friends to send him off with a grand memorial and I eulogized him with a story I wrote about him. It was the least I could do. His endless thirst for adventure, directed by his strong will and desire to live every ounce of life that he could possible fit in, is what I can only aspire to be and what I define as a truly successful life. — Dolores DeLuce, Blow Jobs, 261

Categorization

• XREF: Caps the chapter’s theme plainly: she is defining what she means by a ‘truly successful life,’ worth weighing against her own professed dysfunction, laziness, and the book’s whole ‘how not to’ conceit. — connects to: A performing life requires constant purposeful movement toward goals — Pauline Oliveros, Deep Listening, 359; Adventure always unfolds in a human world and affects other people
• DEEPTHINKING: There’s a subtle inversion worth sitting with: the man who lived most intensely is dying of AIDS while she, who does not live that way, survives to eulogize him. The passage quietly questions whether the aspirational ideal it states is actually the better life.

Broader Connections

• A performing life requires constant purposeful movement toward goals #qualifies (0.75) — Pauline Oliveros, Deep Listening, 359
• Adventure always unfolds in a human world and affects other people #expands (0.72)