I recently read Songlines by Bruce Chatwin. I am now reading Your Silence Will Not Protect You by Audre Lorde. The first people of Australia believed the songs passed down both created the world and were their identity. Ms. Lorde definitely thought so. Both also eschewed colonial concepts of ownership. Neither wanted to participate in capitalism. Instead they viewed their roles as wordsmiths charged with creating place, describing a home, and come into being. But home, place and identity could only be achieved while on the journey. I've been sitting with this idea more and more that our journeys are all we own. And when we try to possess them completely, we lose our path, our home, our identity, and our place in it all. It's made me think more about the metaphor of Dark Roux. We really can't stop moving, or we will burn.
As Ms. Lorde said: "But once you get there, only you know why, what you came for, as you search for it and perhaps find it."