This could go anywhere... Am I about to talk about a failed meal? A criminal act? A medical condition that is best left undisclosed to anyone other than my doctor and my boyfriend?
None of the above. I am am talking about desire. Burning desire. Still, the place I'm going here is not as sexy as it sounds. I'm talking about a burning desire to travel.
How's that for a teaser campaign? But, I digress.
I really haven't done much traveling. Never left the country...haven't even been to the Caribbean. Don't have a passport and never have.
This isn't a typical "I need a vacation" vent. My motivation is not to take a break from the burden of daily life. My daily life is not such a terrible burden. My motivation is to experience more. To be challenged. I can't shake the feeling that I'm missing out, and for a very good reason. I AM missing out! There is a whole big, wide world out there that I am missing.
I put this out there as an acknowledgment of this place in my evolution. As I move forward in my life, I am moving away from materialism. Not that I was ever materialistic, but that I have come to reject material as a gauge of my success or happiness. I reject the societal goal structure that measures milestones by material gain...buying a house, getting a raise, bigger, bigger, more, more. Don't get me wrong, I want to be comfortable and have what I need, but my definition of "need" has drastically changed in the last 5 years. I need to make sure I don't come to the end of my life knowing that I missed out.
Now, back to that burning sensation. Each year in the last week of August, thousands of people converge in the Nevada desert for an artistic free-for-all called Burning Man. There was a time when this event sounded to me like the most bizarre, outrageous event and I couldn't imagine the draw. Now, I get it. It represents this desire...this desire to measure milestones in experiences. It represents complete freedom from materialistic society, from being judged, from limitations, real or imagined. I hope to count it among my experiences, sooner than later. Until then, I'll just be burning toast.
