So the other day at work, I was bored and annoyed by my phone which would not stop ringing. To keep my sanity, I took a break and surfed on over to Flickr and started to type in random search words. One of the words I typed in was black and on the first page I found this picture:
Black Rock City, Nevada. Burning Man 2006. And I have not been able to get it out of my head since.
Back in December, at the Yule ritual I went to, I made a comment to my friends, Luiz and Alissa, that in 2013 we should go to Burning Man. I picked 2013 because that is the year we all turn 40.
But I have been lurking around the Burning Man website (www.burningman.com) for the last few days, and I don't know if I can wait 5 years to go. The more I read about it, the more it becomes something that I must experience. And considering that a) I am not a huge fan of camping (we will be renting a RV, I can tell you that right now) and b) large crowds make me very uncomfortable (I'm an introvert and proud of it), I'm not sure where these feelings are coming from.
I am intrigued by how this city springs up in the Black Rock desert ever year and after the week is over, there is no trace that it was ever there. I love the fact that its not just about partying and drinking and sex (which is what I thought at first). That it is about surviving in an unforgiving enviroment and self expression and community. And I want to live it at least once in my life time. I want to experince the dust and the heat and the rain that turns everything to mud. I want to ride a bike across the playa with my eyes closed. I want to watch as the Man burns on the Saturday night. I want to let the experince change me.
The Burning Man Mission Statement:
Our mission is to produce the annual event known as "Burning Man" and to guide, nurture and protect the more permanent community created by its culture. Our intention is to generate society that connects each individual to his or her creative powers, to participation in community, to the larger realm of civic life, and to the even greater world of nature that exists beyond society. We believe that the experience of Burning Man can produce positive spiritual change in the world. To this end, it is equally important that we communicate with one another, with the citizens of Black Rock City and with the community of Burning Man wherever it may arise. Burning Man is radically inclusive, and its meaning is potentially accessible to anyone. The touchstone of value in our culture will always be immediacy: experience before theory, moral relationships before politics, survival before services, roles before jobs, embodied ritual before symbolism, work before vested interest, participant support before sponsorship. Finally, in order to accomplish these ends, Burning Man must endure as a self-supporting enterprise that is capable of sustaining the lives of those who dedicate themselves to its work. From this devotion spring those duties that we owe to one another. We will always burn the Man.
Burn Baby Burn
