Burning Man 2009

I chronicled one hundred words a day about my experience at Burning Man. It can be read at 100words.com. The brevity forces you to pick basically one thing to talk about and then be brief. So a lot of things happened at Burning Man that did not get mentioned in the daily 100 word entries. I guess that is what this blog is for.

Burning Man. Jeez. I read about it. I talked to people about it. I tried to be prepared for it. I had no fucking idea what I was getting into until I got there. Because you can't tell anybody what Burning Man is. It's like telling somebody about the Grand Canyon when they've never seen it. They simply do not have a context for the Grand Canyon to fit in. It's the same with Burning Man. You leave the cars and money parked and put away. You give things to people. People give things to you. People express themselves without restraint. You express yourself without restraint. You and them are surprised at who you are for yourself. You're surprised at who you are for others.

The energy builds every afternoon as the sun starts to go down. It builds to a crescendo, and then another, and another And then it is quiet from 5:00 - 6:00 a.m. There is no electricity or water, but 45,000 people build a city of lights on the playa for 8 days.

Black Rock City is freedom, freedom to be just exactly who you want to be, hopefully who you truly are. In Black Rock City, people believe what you say about who you are. There is a lot of risk-taking. There is not a lot of skepticism. There is a lot of love. There is almost no conflict. There are a lot of smiles and there is a lot of laughter. There is not a lot of worrying, and not a lot of loneliness.

The first thing I did was put my bra and my wallet away. My bra represents the rules about how to look, and how to look if you are a woman. The wallet represents the money economy we live in. In a clothing optional environment, it was easy to give up the bra. In a gift economy, there was no need for money.

I came here to be delighted. I was delighted. I came here to be myself. I was more myself than i have been in decades. Maybe more than I have ever been. I came here to connect with other people in a meaningful way. i connected in every way, meaningful and otherwise.

When you arrive at Burning Man, the greeters leap up to your car and welcome you home. I was home.