BM, post 3 of N

Being back is weird. I can't decide if it would be more or less weird to have had a couple of days of down time before diving into classes and work and figuring out what my life is going to look like this year. (Answer: busy.)

I'm torn between wanting to let the experience of Burning Man mellow a bit before I try to talk about it and wanting to talk about it as much as possible to have it all out in a concrete form before it begins to dissipate. It's a little too soon to say for sure, but it feels like it has the potential to have been a life-changing experience, but I'm not really sure in what ways, yet. I will definitely be going back. And as glad as I am to have showered and slept in my own bed, there's a big part of me that wishes I was still there, and re-entry is, unsurprisingly, kicking my butt.

Burning Man, 4 of N

So, they held this ... thing in the middle of the desert. I mean, I could call it a party, or camping, or an arts event, or an experiment in temporary community, or just a big old mass of wacky people making up reality for a while, and none of those would quite capture it. So, let's just call it Burning Man and move on, yes?

When I first heard about Burning Man 15 or more years ago, my first reaction was, "What kind of idiot goes camping in the high desert in the middle of summer?" I can now say with utter certainty that that reaction was not wrong. This is not a smart thing to do. But I can't help thinking how different it would be if it weren't set in such an extreme and alien environment. So the answer is that a particular kind of idiot goes camping in the high desert in the middle of summer. Or, more accurately, a whole slew of different but particular kinds of idiots. And it turns out I'm one of them.

( Some stuff happened. )