Last Monday I got back from two weeks in the US of A, where I first spent some wholesome time arguing and occasionally laughing with my family. We drove from the ‘Peg down to Berkeley, where my sister is starting her second semester, and my parents schlepped Ikea furniture for little Vos and her schoolmates while I drifted aimlessly around Berkeley and San Francisco. Fuck, I love the Bay Area. Bookstores, Mexican food, moderate weather, flowers EVERYWHERE, nice people, easy-to-find info shops that some friends at home directed me to in February. San Francisco is one of those cities I would like to make a home in; it just feels good to be there. There is an energy in big cities that makes me feel full and alive.
From there, I moved on to less wholesome activities at Burning Man. Please, please follow that link if you don’t know much about the festival. The image gallery in particular will blow your mind, and I spent hours reading through everything on the site in the three weeks before I headed out there. I’m not going to try to describe the experience because I won’t be able to do it very well – which, even for a pathetically out-of-practice writer, is very frustrating. Suffice to say that I’ll be going back and I’ll be working to keep that feeling with me in the rest of my life. And that I think I’ve been inspired by the place, the people and the ideas to make some big changes in my life.
Being away from home always makes me appreciate this city more, somehow. It’s a small place, and I don’t think it makes a great impression on visitors. For instance: an Australian dude who befriended some of my campmates at Burning Man decided to hitch a ride back here with them, and apparently he is not too happy with where he’s ended up. Which, for one thing, seems unnecessarily bitchy considering that he decided to come here on a whim and depended on the kindness of strangers to get here. For another, it probably means he hasn’t gotten out to look around too much. Anyone we camped with could tell him: if you like (thing), go to (neighbourhood), it’s awesome! It may be the only example of that thing in the city, but it’s cool. That’s part of the beauty of our city: the communities are tight-knit because they have no other choice. We may not have impressive highrises, but we do have plenty of open space under the prairie sky. I sat down in a park today, just a slim strip of grass and trees alongside Balmoral, and it was so lovely to look all around and see the clouds moving, the sun in the trees. Watching sunsets in the desert was novel, but watching them in the prairies is breathtaking because there is just so much to be painted orange and pink and green.
Of course, I only love the city this way because it’s home and I’ve never known another place in this way. And like most of us, I have a love-hate relationship with it. But I would rather be present in it and make it mine and work to change the shitty things than sit around bitching. Even in the winter. I might have a visitor from a very different place sometime soon, and I’ve realized in the last week how excited I would be to walk around with someone who would look with fresh eyes at my favourite places.
*Most will know, but – this song is the best known and most fun example of Winnipeg self-hating from local band The Weakerthans.
