I am not at burning man today…

I’m in Richmond VA at a work meeting

 for most of the past 365 days of the year I had thought I would be. Burning Man .. for those of you who may not know.. is an annual festival in the Black Rock desert of Nevada. It draws about 50,000 of the most wonderfully eclectic freaks, artists, techis, hippiess, nudists, vouyers and all other sorts of folks that defy classification. (In fact.. Burning man has taught me that most folks defy classification)

I first went to Burning Man in 2008.  I also went last year. Last year, Homer lead our group to build an amazing device called the TimeCycle. a 20 foot diesel driven ferris wheel car  (i did the lights) . Building that thing, getting it cross country and keeping it running was a herculean feat… and it exhausted us all . . .. I’ll never forget riding that thing into athe sunrise one morning after riding around all night.. 

First time I went it happened as something of an accident. I was talking to my friend Ben about something else and he invited me to come along to the burn. What I found there rocked my world on so many levels. What hit me first was that I’d never imagined that there were so many folks like me that were passionate abou mixing art and expression with science and technoloigy .. There were folks with computere controlled flames that pulsed to music, giant animated dragons ,  giant floats of every shape covered with dancing people. lasers of every color crossing the sky.. and every where people covered in blinking, strobing a lights.. Strings of lights, halos of light.. whole light up costumes.. There were explosions of one sort or another all through the day and night.. and music everywhere.. I felt surrounded by kindred spirits.  The event ends when all 50000 folks gather around a 90 foot tallk wooden ‘man’ which is buildt in the center of the circular ‘playa’. The man is loaded with explosives and then torched.. It is an awesome spectacle.. indescribable, really.

The longer I stayed, tough, the more I got to feel the spirit of the place.. The whole event is cash free.. you can’t buy, sell or trade.. Everything is based on gifting and self-reliance There were very few rules.. the one I remember most is “label your flammables and explosives “..    The moto of the place was “safety third !”

While ome of the festival is just wild good time..  some of it was incredibly serene and peaceful. Every year the organizers also build a wooden building called ‘the temple’ which is a memorial to those who have passed on.  there were hundereds of people in the building at any given time.. making tributes to their loved ones.. I will never forget walking into the temple in 2008 with a bag of 300 Samstones..

Anyway.. I’m not there this year.. I decided for good reasons, that I had too many things goign on in my life here to be able to dissapeas for the week in the dessert without sleep.   It’s been a good decision. I’ve been able to get many things done these past couple of days.. I feel rested and peaceful.. That’s good. I’ll be back with my family after this short trip.. that’s good, too.

Today I’m in a meeting in Richmond VA.. there are no dancing naked people here, no explosions timed to music.. but.. the folks here are nice.. I had a good-though-complicated set of technical meeting today with some smart people.   None of them were covered in lights, but they were very good folks just the same. I made a good choice in not going to Burning Man this year.. At the same time, a little of my heart is there this week. I am sending out good times wishes to all my freinds on the playa..

Remember..folks.   ‘safety third” !