Except for me.
@CL, @Rube & @Jenny @7w, Thank you!
@bigato, we almost made it to Brasillia. There is an inexpensive TAP Air flight from there to Portugal which we considered. It is the least expensive flight between South America and Europe. Combine that with the fact that Brazilians are just fabulous people and we were sold. But I started doing the timeline from here to there, El Chalten > Bariloche > Buenos Aires > Florianopolis > Rio > .. that put us out of season for Jordan. We will be back to Brazil someday.
While our contrived challenges are nothing compared to your real world challenges, I agree that difficulties bond people in ways that good times do not. Veterans claim that camaraderie is the thing they miss most when they leave the military.jennypenny wrote: ↑Tue Mar 12, 2019 5:31 pmI sometimes wonder if my own family is happier/closer than most because my son's illness functioned as a common enemy that helped us bond. It's a weird thing. Ego used to say we all need to find challenges to make us stronger, but maybe it wasn't just about strength -- maybe he was getting something else out of it that he didn't realize.
It comes down to those stages of maturity... dependent > independent > interdependent. I'd imagine that there are some few rare people who are able to move from independent individuals to interdependence without catalyzing events. We've come to realize that contrived challenges bond us together in preparation for those inevitable times when the real world catapults a bomb into our world. In the end, that bond is the most valuable thing we have.
We went for a run this morning. It was close to freezing with a strong wind blowing hard on the waterfront. I had a song in my head for the entire run. Perhaps it fits here...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhMfd-NhCeo