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A few of you asked for more Burning Man stories and I will happily oblige because I know there are people who haven't had great experiences at the Man but mine were filled with magic. It's not an easy week, the heat is unbearable and you are completely responsible for your own resources and unless you are rich and go in an RV there is little escape. The days are spent recuperating under makeshift shade structures, but as the night falls the action kicks in.
We had found a campsite across from the Soylent Baby Camp. They had a conveyor belt where you'd place a can of food and it would go through some sort of motions and spit a baby out on the other end. The fact that there was a naked old man with a long beard and a bottle of scotch cranking them out sealed the deal and the baby was a gift. Baby in hand I began the long walk to the center of town where the most spectacular displays are featured. I'd been imbibing in the spirits so things were a bit vivid to begin with and as I walked through town I ran into Jesus and the Devil hand in hand. The Devil gave me a long hug and absolved me of my sins while Jesus smiled and nodded. The next stop was a walk down a trippy subliminal memory lane, and then we paused at a downtempo lounge where exotic women were dancing to their own groove. I caught a few fire handlers and encountered some strange, strange electrical squids. I was hugged countless times and by the time I was done my day glo body paint must have been shared with a hundred new found stranger friends.
It's no exaggeration that you are completely overwhelmed with creativity every single square foot of your journey. And everyone is welcoming. I was offered food and drink and gifts everywhere I went and by the time it's over you stumble back to your camp and fall asleep under the wide Nevada sky. And the next night you head off in a different direction and it's a whole other explosion of sensory delights. It's dehydrating and unbelievable and magical and freeing and out of this world because every single thing is okay as long as it's not hurtful to anyone else.
And I really think we are onto something with a Burning Bloggers Camp. We can do it, but it'll require commitment and organization. We can do communal everything and we can bring kids or not bring kids and it will all work out just fine. It might not be for everyone, but I think with a little letting go and a sense of adventure it would rock your world and change the way you want to live in it.
As we were leaving the festival we were one of a thousand dusty cars on caravan through the desert. The wind can bring serious dust storms and everyone and everything is covered in fine white dust. As we edged our way out we came upon a man with a sign that said he needed $100 to get home. We rolled down our window and went to hand him money and he replied that it was ok, he raised what he needed in 10 minutes and didn't need it. And that alone summed it all up because he wasn't taking more than he needed and in a few moments everyone who passed by lended a hand.
Three days after I returned from Burning Man that year 9/11 happened and the world turned on it's head. It was impossible to reconcile where I'd just been from the horror that was unfolding and the juxtaposition of the two is something that still confounds me to this day. That the potential for love and light and utopia exists alongside the capacity for terrible horrors and yet each day we soldier on and do what we can to move forward in this great big world of ours. And how a little burn could go a long way for all of us and might even change the world.
I've got a new review up over at my other spot so check it out before you go because I made a book. Or personalized a book. But still, it rocks.
Showing posts with label burning man. Show all posts
Showing posts with label burning man. Show all posts
feeling the burn
Burning Man is under way this week. For those of you who are unfamiliar, it's a blessed out of this world festival deep in the Nevada desert. A temporary utopian community created out of sand and wind and heat. It's a difficult thing to describe if you haven't been there, but it's really something extraordinary.
Everyone is living out their fantasies, whether it's dressing up in tutus or being completely naked. The art and creativity is out of this world, the full on discos, the fire walking pits, the 24 hour lounges. I was a low-level burner, someone who showed up with a tent and a few costumes and trinkets. Others bring entire structures, giant elephants rise out of the desert, double decker buses covered in pink fur and disco balls careen through the neighborhoods. It's a non stop visual delight, groups of gorgeous women cycling naked, men on stilts, costumes, lights, energy, heat.
The cornerstone of the Man is kindness. You can purchase nothing at the festival besides ice. Everything else is barter. You trade or are given what you need and offer what you can. As you walk around the enormous festival you are assaulted with creativity and beauty everywhere you go. One night as we went exploring I ate roasted corn with some gypsies, drank absinthe with clowns, danced in the Sahara, watched a medieval play and saw the most exotic woman I have seen dancing for the world on top of an old fashioned popcorn cart. It's everywhere, this rampant over expression of divine creavity, sexuality and bliss.
One of the most memorable impressions I have from the festival (aside from vagina tents and downtempo safaris and women cavorting on trampolines) was really quite small. Two men on bikes ran head on into each other. A gigantic crash. I remember pausing and thinking oh shit, what is going to happen now but both men jumped up and hugged each other and got on their bikes and rode off in different directions. The kindnesses I witnessed should be the norm in a world where anger at strangers seems to be the common denominator. And it's combined with bawdy sexy off the charts self expression combined with intentionality. It is really an extraordinary experience.
So when I learned that this guy took it upon himself to desecrate the most sacred of events, the final burn of the festival, the one where all 25,000 beautiful people are gathered in an enormous circle with drums and lights and non stop funkadelic to welcome the burn I was angry. Angry that one dude would take it upon himself to be the anti-burner, the one who was thinking of himself and not the community and destroyed the Man too soon. But I also know it's a temporary interruption, that today thousands of folks are meeting at the center of that desert and doing what they can to repair the man using items from their camps and their general brilliant creativity. So all in all I am betting that this year's burn will be the most special of all because if there is ever a place where the community will triumph against the individual, it's at Burning Man.
And I wish I was there. And I wish all of you could be there too. Because it changes the way you look at the world, this one week in the desert living in a world where the answer to everything is yes.
Everyone is living out their fantasies, whether it's dressing up in tutus or being completely naked. The art and creativity is out of this world, the full on discos, the fire walking pits, the 24 hour lounges. I was a low-level burner, someone who showed up with a tent and a few costumes and trinkets. Others bring entire structures, giant elephants rise out of the desert, double decker buses covered in pink fur and disco balls careen through the neighborhoods. It's a non stop visual delight, groups of gorgeous women cycling naked, men on stilts, costumes, lights, energy, heat.
The cornerstone of the Man is kindness. You can purchase nothing at the festival besides ice. Everything else is barter. You trade or are given what you need and offer what you can. As you walk around the enormous festival you are assaulted with creativity and beauty everywhere you go. One night as we went exploring I ate roasted corn with some gypsies, drank absinthe with clowns, danced in the Sahara, watched a medieval play and saw the most exotic woman I have seen dancing for the world on top of an old fashioned popcorn cart. It's everywhere, this rampant over expression of divine creavity, sexuality and bliss.
One of the most memorable impressions I have from the festival (aside from vagina tents and downtempo safaris and women cavorting on trampolines) was really quite small. Two men on bikes ran head on into each other. A gigantic crash. I remember pausing and thinking oh shit, what is going to happen now but both men jumped up and hugged each other and got on their bikes and rode off in different directions. The kindnesses I witnessed should be the norm in a world where anger at strangers seems to be the common denominator. And it's combined with bawdy sexy off the charts self expression combined with intentionality. It is really an extraordinary experience.
So when I learned that this guy took it upon himself to desecrate the most sacred of events, the final burn of the festival, the one where all 25,000 beautiful people are gathered in an enormous circle with drums and lights and non stop funkadelic to welcome the burn I was angry. Angry that one dude would take it upon himself to be the anti-burner, the one who was thinking of himself and not the community and destroyed the Man too soon. But I also know it's a temporary interruption, that today thousands of folks are meeting at the center of that desert and doing what they can to repair the man using items from their camps and their general brilliant creativity. So all in all I am betting that this year's burn will be the most special of all because if there is ever a place where the community will triumph against the individual, it's at Burning Man.
And I wish I was there. And I wish all of you could be there too. Because it changes the way you look at the world, this one week in the desert living in a world where the answer to everything is yes.
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