Sunday, September 07, 2003
Life is funny, ain't it?
I didn't make the Burn this year, but I feel more connected to it than ever. It's not an exaggeration to claim that the Burn itself is indirectly responsible for my current situation: married, with family, in the Poland's capital city. Everywhere I go, every way I turn, I try to reconnect with the antediluvian energy that I discovered in such abundance upon the Playa in the blistering summer heat of 2001.
Witness this past July. I with my very pregnant wife, Gosia, returned to my small, blue-collar New Jersey hometown to bathe within the enduring warmth of family. I knew I would have been sorely remiss if I didn't look up some East Coast Burners to toast old memories and forge new bonds. I had been in communication with Taco Boy (who wore a Mexican fundamental upon his Grecian parts - and nothing else but a goofy grin) via e-mail since before the 2001 Burn, but we had never hooked up. TB, aka Ken, is the New Jersey regional rep, and he lives in a Victorian-era two-story which he restored himself. Fact is, after years of slaving over the high-sales insurance pitch and slowly nursing an inevitable stroke, he ditched it all (literally) for refuge on the Playa. He never looked back. He now finds and helps to restore homes fulltime for his Freehold hometown (a guy named Sprigsteen hails from there).
Ken didn't pause for an instant in treating the two of us as old friends. He brought the wine, we brought the food, we hit a local concert, and then he showed us around his stunning house - complet with player piano, a cylinder-phonograph, and much more. To top it off, our carrot-topped pal is more than a little Polski himself, who has been to the motherland and is probably the only Burner who will take me up on my standing invitation to come visit.
Then Gosia and I hit the shore points, did some other family touristy stuff, flew back to P-land, and wouldn't you know it? Last Tuesday the 27th, just as the latest Burn was gearing up full-throttle, had a baby boy! Little Zbyszek (ZBI-jek) Royal Still. Never have I been happier; man, I just LOVE being a daddy! It was the Burn that brought me out through Nevada and then, by linear extension, to Lake Tahoe, where I bumped into my Polish Queen - and the rest, as they say is history.
My life changed that summer of 2001. Profoundly, irrevocably. A reborn man made new friends, plumbed new depths, scaled new heights, and eventually found a new family and homeland. For a moment not too long ago I wished that we could had been there with you. But I realize I'm tickled pink being just where I am. Come on over and I'll pour you a glass of local vodka - then we can toast old memories and forge new bonds. Burn on, effendi!
posted by mark 12:37 AM
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