Burning Man: An Unexpected Feeling. Wednesday 8-31-16

Wednesday I woke up and there was a big dude sitting two camps over from he and he told me to come over. They were a camp predominantly from South California and New Orleans. Super cool. Chris was the one who invited me over and we started bullshiting. He is a really funny guy. He is tall with a beard and raspy voice. But he was super awesome. He called me Jersey for the entire week and pretty much took care of me. Made sure I had some normal non canned food, drank with them at sundown and was just generally awesome and made me feel included. Camp Themeless as a whole were all amazing people.

I took my bike and decided I wanted to go see the man and take a general look around and see what this was all about.

(I forgot to mention on the previous night:

When I was riding around just looking to drink I pulled up to an actual saloon. It was built with double swinging doors a little pit outside. It was completely made of wood and inside there was even a piano to play. It was really cool. So in case I did’t paint the picture well enough it looked like an actual Saloon. Double wooden doors, bar, bartenders, smoking, super fucking cool. However, I didn’t understand how all of this worked so I asked this guy standing out front who was a bit drunk.

Me- Hey buddy, so how does all of this work?

Him-What do you mean?

Me- Like I see there are camps and stuff how do I know where I can go in and hang out and stuff like that.

Him- He laughs and says clearly it’s your first year, that is really awesome.

We go back and forth about where each of us are from and finally he tells me something amazing.

Him- Basically everything here is to serve you, and you are here to serve it. So If you can help, add to the vibe, add conversation or whatever it is, you do. But you literally just go into the camp and enjoy whatever it is they give to you. It’s here for you buddy, so enjoy it to the fullest.

That was the coolest thing ever. Then he gave me two lights to light my bike up a bit and I went inside and found out I needed an ID and then promptly left to where it left off in my previous piece about Tuesday PM)

Also, If I was to try and take pictures of everything I would’ve never put my phone away honestly. So the pictures I took are a very very very small part of the ridiculousness I actually saw haha.

Back to Wednesday and not my hazy drunk memory. I got on my bike and sped off. Thank god I have out location written on my arm or I would have been boned the first couple of days haha. First thing I do is ride out to the man to check it out. Sadly, one of the gears that would make it rotate was destroyed and they were trying to figure out how to fix. As I’m standing there I see this metal working station and it offering to engrave your own piece of copper or metal. I wait in line and talk to the people around me and got to use the hydraulic press to create my little thing. So COOL.

After I wanted to check out the temple which is something I had been told about but clearly knew nothing about.

I biked up and as I got closer I was amazed at how absolutely beautiful this building is. The amount of love and detail that goes into it is beyond amazing to me. I put my bike down take some pictures and it seems like a totally normal vibe. However, the second you pass the gates there is this overwhelming and beautiful feeling of sadness and relief. My smile quickly faded as I started to read the walls filled with tears, hurt, hope and wishes of loved ones present and past. The feeling literally over took me and I just started crying. There are all types of things you will read in the temple but one in particular crushed me. It was a son to his parents saying that he misses both of them and wishes they were here.

I am just going to say up until this point in my life, I have been very fortunate. I have lost only my grandparents and people in that generation that were close to me like my Aunt Anna. The closest I have ever seen to losing someone my age or young was this beautiful kid I met who use to work at CPK after I did. I met him at a party and we had a lot in common. Super beautiful kid with a lot of heart. Its the one and only time I saw him, but he had made an impression on me. Sadly a few months later he died because of a bad batch of heroin. I will never forget him as long as I live for as brief of a night as that was it’s amazing what people can add to your soul.

Other than this, I have been incredibly lucky to only have been there for friends and family, but my personal life has been unaffected by serious grief in losing someone. I am very fortunate.

The temple is burning man in my opinion. The rest of it, the party, the man, drugs, sex, everything else is just the fun. And the fun is REALLY REALLY FUCKING AWESOME. But the temple is that spiritual connector among people. Bringing people together that have never met. With a hug, with love, with a gesture. It is the most beautiful place I have ever been to in the world. The saddest part about writing this is my words can never do it justice. Ever. I hope that everyone gets to experience something on this level of beauty and magnitude for the soul at least once in their lives.

After I am done with the hug fest I decided to just bike around to my hearts content. I won’t lie it’s pretty far from where I am camped, and I am fat, and a little tired. The awesome thing is that when you are prepared to get back to camp you’ll make 100 detours because there is literally endless things to do on the playa haha.

On the way back I get my “playa ID” which was this big silly sign where you fill in all of your information and they take a picture of you in it after you take a little quiz and get a drink. After I finish I am standing there talking to the guy who told me to go in. He asked me how I was enjoying my first burn and I told him about my experience at the temple just now and he smiled and said I want to give you something. He takes this beautiful necklace out of his bag and tells me it is a piece of black rock from the desert and held together by copper with a piece of glass left over from last years temple burn. I gave him a huge hug and asked him if he was sure. He told me absolutely and that I had to do him only one favor while I was there. “Just say yes.” Done. I promise you I did. Thank you for my beautiful necklace my friend.

Red had told me he had showed up and parked next to me. Side note: I have been friends with him for 15 years but recently I did something that made him mad, I am still unsure of what it is and we hadn’t really talked in months. I got back to camp and was talking to the people around me and I saw him walking up. This place has a beautiful aura to it and I went sprinting to go give him a hug. We had a big boisterous laugh being the two monstrous fatties we are and a hug and he told me welcome home. This place is amazing. Stan told me it was beautiful and he tried to take a picture for us but somethings are just meant to last in that moment and nowhere else. It’s all good.

Most of this day was just drinking and hanging out otherwise. I took virtually no pictures and Just walked around talking to people but I did get to feel the temple. It was beautiful. I fell asleep rather early because I was still worn out from my previous two weeks. Thank god I did because over the next four days I would get a collective like 6-10 hours of sleep.