While traveling last week, I was catching up on old episodes from my favorite podcasts. One of those episodes was an interview with Sebastian Junger, hosted by Ryan Hawk. The whole episode is worth a listen and can be found on The Learning Leader Show podcast (episode 421), but the phrase that got me, the one that’s been rolling around in my head ever since, was this one:
“Comfort is not gratifying.”
I stopped the podcast and listened to those words again.
“Comfort is not gratifying. Even security isn’t all that gratifying. We crave comfort, but it’s more of an addiction than a need, even though we’ve built our whole civilization around it.” (paraphrased)
Sit with that for a second. We need a level of security. We need safety. That’s a basic human (and non-human) need. We deeply need connection, on every level from physical to emotional to physiological. We need love and intimacy, the experience of being fully known and knowing (and loving) another.
Comfort is an add-on, a bonus feature to a film that’s told a full and complete story. It’s not a story in and of itself.