An Excerpt from The Orc King by R.A. Salvatore:
That is the line we all straddle, between comfort and adventure. There are those who find satisfaction, even fulfillment, in the former, and there are those who are forever seeking. It is my guess, and can only be my guess, that the fears of the former are rooted in fear of the greatest mystery of all, death.
It is no accident that those who construct the thickest walls are most often rooted firmly, immovably, in their faith. The here and now is as it is, and the better way will be found in the afterlife. That proposition is central to the core beliefs that guide the faithful, with, for many, the added caveat that the afterlife will only fulfill its promise if the here and now remains in strict accord with the guiding principles of the chosen deity.
I count myself among the other group, the seekers…It is not just boredom that propels my steps along paths unknown, but a firm belief that the guiding principle of life must be a search not for what is, but for what could be.
To look at injustice or oppression, at poverty or slavery, and shrug helplessly, or worse to twist a god’s “word” to justify such states, is anathema to the ideal, and to me, the ideal is achieved only when the ideal is sought…So we dare to seek. So we dare to change…
For it is in the seeking, in that continual desire to improve ourselves and to improve the world around us, that we walk the road of enlightenment…that we tried to lift ourselves and our world…to the image of the ideal.
– Drizzt Do’Urden