# 166 ADRENALINE JUNKIE

Now I don’t think I’m an adrenaline junky but that doesn’t alter the fact that everyone needs an adrenaline rush now and again. The jolt of a new sensation. And, of course, it is ridiculous to think that at my age I could take up some radical sport like car-racing, mountain-climbing, or bungee-jumping to create that adrenaline rush I long for. But still, regardless of crotchety limbs and unsteady hands, I long for an occasional fix of that special elixir coursing through the causeways of my body.

Now the whole point of this rant is to find something that without risk to body and bone I can do to give myself a mad, glad, rad adrenaline rush, and today I have focused on that because I am in a particularly dour mood.

When I think about what I’ve found in the past particularly enjoyable, I seem to always go back to some time when I was able to give someone something that they truly valued and longed for. Sometimes a material gift, sometimes a gift of time. And from this contemplation stemmed the thought that perhaps I could get an adrenaline rush by giving away to others the things that I personally value most. Not stuff I can pack into a real wicker hamper, but a figurative hamper packed to the brim with the invisible and intangible goods such as a listening ear, a gentle touch, concern about another, admiration or acknowledgement of another’s efforts. These are just a few examples that quickly come to mind. Of course there are many more.

‘So how do I get the stuff for my hamper?’ you may ask. ‘And how can I plan to give an unending abundance of that which I may have seldom received? Without the ability to buy or give hand-me-downs, how do I plan to stuff a hamper?’

Yes, I have limited hand-me-downs and purchase is out of the question. I know that even though the big kahuna of all coffee houses has delectable coffee for sale, they have no shelf stock of the condiments of laughter and delightful conversation to go with it. There are no aisles in the market place of listening ears ready to hear someone vent. One can’t buy a compliment for one’s efforts to conquer fear or deal with conflict. One can’t buy and bag queries from another as to how they are doing. But even though these things can’t be purchased, and believe me, if they could I would have an abundance of them just for me tallied up on a way-out-of control-charge-card, I can still give a windfall of all these things I long for to others.

This is all so amazing. And you know what? Although the giving of such gifts does not necessarily bring returns, it is still a fair exchange. That is the intriguing irony in all this. If we give away what we can’t get, what we can’t buy, what we can’t make, yet what we value most, in return we get something really special. An adrenaline rush in response to an action as risky and foolhardy as any sky-diving attempt.

Oh, and by the way I have a small package in my hamper just for you wrapped in pretty tissue-paper []’s.

[I care about you. Have a great day!]