Marfa

Last summer Denny and I visited Marfa, Tx as part of a west Texas adventure with my cousin, Ryan. For those of you who haven't had the privilege of visiting Marfa, just imagine the town you are living in without the tall buildings, short buildings, apartment buildings, houses, parks, stores, factories, roads, trees, flowers, grass, and anything else that may be in your town. You are now imagining Marfa.
Since leaving Marfa I occasionally get this itch to go back. It could spurred on by the prospect of living in cities like Houston, New York, or San Francisco after graduation. Or it could just be that going back to school and reliving the "what am I going to be when I grow up" phase of life has brought with it some introspection. Or it could just be that I read about a guy, John Wells, who decided to do just that. Reading his story reminds me a little bit of a letter written by Chris McCandles (taken from Into the Wild).

So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism. All of which may appear to give one peace of mind but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventure spirit within a man than a secure feature. The very basic of a man's living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon. For each day to have a new and different sun. If you want to get more out of life, Ron, you must lose you're inclination for monotonous security and adopt a helter sketer type of life. That will first appear to you to be crazy. But once you become accustomed to such a life, you will see it's full meaning and it's incredible beauty. And so, Ron, in short, get out of sulton city and hit the road.

John is clearly not as care free (or possibly care-less) as Chris was. But, he definitely was able to throw the security blanket away and carve out his own adventure. However, before I follow John and head out to the middle of no where, I am going to try to see if I can ever find a way to live with just 100 items. But, of course if I wait for that, I can also put off my purchase of How to survive in the desert for a few more years...