In 1983 the movie Yentl, Barbra Streisand plays a girl, Yentl, pretending to be a boy in order to be able to get an education.  I've always loved the music of that movie, most particularly the final song, entitled A Piece of Sky. In it, Streisand sings:

The more I live - the more I learn.
The more I learn - the more I realize
The less I know.
Each step I take -
(Papa, I've a voice now!)Each page I turn -
(Papa, I've a choice now!)Each mile I travel only means
The more I have to go.
What's wrong with wanting more?
If you can fly - then soar!
With all there is - why settle for
just a piece of sky?

We compromise adventure for security.  It's not a bad choice, certainly not one I would fault.  There are worse choices and worse consequences.  I always wondered, though, whether my itching for more was just a character flaw, an aberration.  This last trip brought me the comfort of meeting other people who shared that same hunger. 

It is true that they were hungry in part because they needed to write grants and publish papers for survival.  However, being an academic does not make you rich.  A friend of mine in the UK works as a homeopathic therapist.  She sees 10 clients a week. She works less and makes more than my academic colleagues.  So the point here is that there are easier ways to make a buck. 

Beyond survival, these people where infected with insatiable curiosity.  There was nothing more important than knowledge, they said, and so they pursued it relentlessly.

So I'm not the only one who is hungry.  I'm not the only one who has taken a glimpse and has wanted more.  With all there is, there really is no need to settle for just a piece of sky.