Burn

Brrrrr......it is getting colder by the day now. I think that it might be time to put away the flip flops soon, at least for evening use. Although I did spend a few hours tanning on the porch yesterday, it was so nice out. But today.....gray, windy and chilly.
I am still not finished telling you about Burning Man. So as you can gather from the name, something burns. And no, it's not a real person, I have actually been asked that. Burning Man started a years ago.....this is what I gathered from Wikipedia.....

"One of the roots of the annual event now known as Burning Man began as a bonfire ritual on the summer solstice in 1986 when Larry Harvey, Jerry James, and a few friends met on Baker Beach in San Francisco and burned a 9-foot wooden man as well as a smaller wooden dog. Harvey has described his inspiration for burning these effigies as a spontaneous act of "radical self-expression". The event did have earlier roots, though. Sculptor Mary Grauberger, a friend of Harvey's girlfriend Janet Lohr, held solstice bonfire gatherings on Baker Beach for several years prior to 1986, some of which Harvey attended. When Grauberger stopped organizing it, Harvey "picked up the torch and ran with it," so to speak. He and Jerry James built an 8-foot wooden effigy for 1986, which was much smaller and more crudely made than the neon-lit figure featured in the current ritual. In 1987, the effigy grew to almost 15 feet tall, and by 1988, it had grown to around 40 feet. Burning Man attendees informally called it "The Man," and this name was given to each successive effigy, every year since Burning Man began."

So of course I attended the burn of the Man, it was done on a Saturday evening and people gathered around the statue of the Man. Here I am in front of the Man a few days before the burn. It was evening and I have a light inside my shirt, my heart light. 🙂



Right before they lit the Man on fire, he raised his arms and the crowd began to cheer.



And then there was fire and fireworks too.



I saw this man sitting close by. I thought he looked very serene and interesting.



I made some new friends.....and took pictures.....and filled my little glass vial up with playa dust. A memory to keep forever.







The next evening, Sunday.....it was time for the Temple to burn. The Temple, a large wooden pyramid shaped structure with a black rock altar inside. This is the place to go and reflect over loved ones that passed away and life in general. The Temple was full of pictures and poems that people had put there. Many people were overcome with emotion and I cried too when I visited the Temple a few days before it burned down and I shed some tears during the burn too.





THIS makes me SO sad. Time is numbered, at least time as we know it. I don't want anyone that I know and love to die! WHY????!!!





Since I have been back home people have asked me what the best thing is with Burning Man. My answer - EVERYTHING. You have to participate to understand, it is difficult to explain. EVERYTHING. It was probably the best money I have spent, besides when I bought Chhaya.