10 Years Ago: "Because the Dead Won't Wait"

 

 

Highway 380 outside Carrizozo, New Mexico. October 2012. Credit: Mzuriana.

Ten years ago I was in Alamogordo, New Mexico, the first of my slomadic year-in-residences after an illuminating moment on a marshrutka en route from Rustavi to Tbilisi, where the sudden thought came to me: "If I want, I can travel the world one year at a time."

In Alamogordo, I encountered the paradox of temporary permanence. Original post here, and the copy below. 

Saturday, November 3, 2012

Paradox of Temporary Permanence

I have the luxury of locating myself in a travel destination - New Mexico - for one year.

A year is a roomy expanse of time to explore the state in the breadth and depth I wish. No hours hunkered over a one- or two-week itinerary, weighing the must-see value of too many sightseeing candidates against too little time and money.

With a year, I can see all that I want to see.

But I find this isn't entirely true. While the geographic locations of interest remain constant, their seasonality does not.

To wit: fall foliage. Or signature annual events, like the upcoming Day of the Dead and the Festival of the Cranes.  

Credit: Calavera Coalition

I arrived in New Mexico toward the end of September. With my focus on finding a place to live and settling in, before I knew it, I was at the end of October.

In Alamogordo, in the high desert, there's no fall foliage to speak of (at least thus far in the beginning of November), so I've got to go out in search of it.

I can't wave away the sightseeing deadline with a casual, "Oh, I'll catch it next year." I don't know where I'll be next year.

So there's a sense of urgency in some things.

Thus, where will I be this weekend? At Mesilla's Dia de los Muertos. Because the dead won't wait.