Diane: We are camping in Kidsville, a theme camp dedicated to those bringing children to Burning Man. There is a trampoline in the center of the village. Kidsville also holds a potluck every night. Some people will bring some chips and others will help make a feast. Last night a next door neighbor, Chas, trucked his stove, fuel, and fresh taco ingredients to make hot tacos for those who wanted them. In the mornings, he makes toast for all the children as they wake up.
Tonight they burned “The Man”. We watched from a distance as the center of Black Rock City went up in flames.
There is a ritual quality about the burns, a certain order in which things are done.
There was about an hour of fire dancing, including poi (fire spinning), hula-hooping with fire, fire-eating, fire-breathing, etc. Our next door neighbor, Monique, is one of the performers. She wears a striking African style of clothing, including bone/ivory in her nose. She speaks and moves with power. And she makes me laugh. She invited us to watch her in the “front row”, but we were not organized enough to get there on time. After the fire performers finish, we wait for the arms to go up. Lasers shoot up and down the body. After all necessary preparations, “The Man”, the dome on which he stands, and all the exhibits left inside and ouside the dome go up in flames.
You-Gotta-Love-It Aside: The temporary nature of Black Rock City, the art installations, and The Man himself promote thinking about the ephemeral nature of our existence as well as the place of material things in our lives. To spend months building a beautiful installation, transport it to the desert, and erect it is to put one’s heart and soul into a material work. For a week, people from all walks of life can enjoy it, manipulate it, and play with it. Then the moment comes when it is time to burn. In an hour, the installation is so much ash and debris. This final end is something we generally go to great lengths to avoid. We change the oil in our cars every few months so that they will trasnport us that much longer. We put shutters on our homes and evacuate, when a hurricane is coming our way. We maintain our health to put off dying. But, here at Burning Man, creation is just a prelude to the final purpose of planned destruction. The visual power and the destructive force of fire is immediate and very moving. My own existence is but a blip on the timeline of our universe. So, I want to live life fully and burn brightly, while I am here. Within the monumental scope of time, the same can be said for whole families lines and even entire cultures. That is why we create art and build large monuments. However, it is so difficult to go beyond the creation phase and appreciate that all these material things will one day be so much dust, perhaps even playa dust, sticking, unwanted, to someone’s hair.
Tom: The end is near. Black Rock City is now full grown, over 35,000 people. Tonight is the burning of "The Man" . People have gathered here for purposes ranging from viewing and creating art, viewing and making contact with other people, getting drunk or high or both, getting a great full body tan, displaying the power, beauty and irresponsibility of youth or middle age or seniority, playing with people´s perceptions of themselves and the larger world, making strange theater, making free food for as many people as you have resources, caring for the desert enviornment, caring for the people who were not prepared for how difficult it is to survive in the desert enviornment, caring for the the people who have ingested more booze or substances than their bodies or minds could cope with, making it possible for all these people to be together in this desolate place and create a community that will leave no trace of its presence within the government required time limit.
The energy has been building all week. Some people are completely exhausted, too much desert or booze or drugs or people or mind bending or gender bending or strange art or off the wall humor or conversation or loneliness or wind or dust or dried cracked skin or EL wire or just too much.
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