Man Burning
Its Friday evening now, 4 days after returning from Black Rock City in the Nevada desert. I won’t seek to explain what Burning Man is; enough people have already and will continue to do that. One great series of posts on Burning Man can be found on an Uber blog that I found here. Suffice to say that spending the time that I did with 48,000 people last week was incredible and impactful. I figured that in this space I can provide some memories that were particularly meaningful to me.
Arriving at Burning Man is quite an experience, and one that all of the preparatory materials don’t address. After an 11 hour drive from Los Angeles out to Gerlach, Nevada, we spend another two hours waiting to get inside. Those waiting are truly shown that convenience and speed are not important aspects to those in charge at Burning Man LLC. The line at the gate seems to be there to reinforce the boundaries between the default world and Black Rock City within. We arrived Monday night, just in time to unpack a few things and wander the playa to see the lunar eclipse. So complete was my disorientation that I completely missed the first (early) burning of “the Man.” I was too busy watching an eclipse I guess. An eclipse being a perfect way to start a trip like this, as a familiar, everyday object is blocked from view.
(This post has taken a while to finish - its now the Tuesday following the initial Friday mentioned in this post). The next week is a jumble of events, certainly much more than the sum of their parts. There was the woman who cleaned and moisturized my cracked and dry feet, even providing me with a pair of socks to take home. This one event provided me with a wealth of energy and goodwill. The was the sheer amazement at the amount of work that goes into building this city in the Nevada desert, which exists for only one week a year, only to be built again the following year; the scale of the structures, the incredible sound systems, the immensity of the city. Also, riding across the playa on a bike, hearing ‘Lookout Weekend’ by Debbie Deb playing out of a giant bus dressed up to like the Cheshire Cat.
Another beautiful thing was the freedom of transportation in Black Rock City. I found it beautiful to be able to ride my bike on a large flat expanse, without worrying about hills or cars hurtling at me at 40 MPH. Not to mention the limiless stimulation and potential for exploration. One could stop pretty much anywhere and see a sculpture or art project, or meet somebody new and speak to them for a moment or at length. At night, there were probably a hundred places to stop and dance, all of them free and within easy walking or biking distance of one another. It truly felt like limitless possibility.
And then there was the Temple of Forgiveness. One of the most powerful spaces I have ever experienced. A place people used to find peace with lost loved ones, part with aspects of themselves they wished to be done with and multitudes of other cathartic experiences. Everywhere I looked there were photos, drawings, notes and personal affects, all imbued with emotion. People cried, I cried. Someone came up to me and gave me a pen and a notebook to write; I did. And left what I wrote as notes inserted into the intricate woodwork of the temple to burn. I deeply respected the inclusion of this sacred space within the larger framework of Black Rock City.
In the end, I would never wish to to explain the entirety of my time at Burning Man within this forum, or any other. My week in Black Rock City held parallels to a week anywhere — there were good times and bad, easy times and hard. Time was spent exploring, eating, resting, loving, learning. A 24 hour a day, 7 day a week opportunity to experience.
