I stumbled across this lovely essay this morning by a man who, concerned about the impact on the environment caused by his love of long-distance travel, instead set his sights on intimately exploring his neighborhood. In his first attempt, he realizes an “empty” square on the map is anything but: it contains evidence of human alteration of an otherwise “natural” landscape, a diversity of plants and animals, and anthropological markers of protests, conservation efforts, and even an ancient burial site.

Although I don’t share his climate anxieties, the essay resonated with me. I too have found that training curiosity on even mundane places or objects can bear rewarding fruit. Weird, infuriating, even charming details can tumble out when the boring is poked by a small “but why?”

Noticing that my local park hadn’t been touched in almost 30 years started me on my own microadventure. “But why?” I asked myself. And the more I wondered, the less it made sense. One observation led to other discoveries. Lots of families live in my neighborhood. It’s one of the wealthier neighborhoods in Costa Mesa. So how could such a heavily used park be so overlooked?

These questions led to other ones. Why was Tustin so busy? Why wasn’t there a crosswalk from Rochester Street to the park entrance, where everyone is jaywalking anyway? Many questions and answers later, I found myself joining the board of the Costa Mesa Alliance for Better Streets. And working with CMABS, I realized there was a lot I didn’t know about housing, schools and economic development. And so on.

In this way my microadventure has become a great big adventure. So here’s to the little questions that might start you on your way to something huge.

“It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.”

J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings