ADVENTURE: Radical Ritual, Burning Man 2017

Reminiscences and reflections from a reluctant burner… This was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, because I am almost certainly not doing this again? But as much as my arm had to be twisted to go, and despite some of the (many) problematic elements of the festival, I am glad I went. Once.

The Black Rock Desert and the stark Nevada landscape is absolutely stunning, often otherworldly, and overall this was a pretty unforgettable experience. I like the idea of this event, in theory, and it’s a pretty remarkable feat of temporary human engineering, and leave-no-trace and radical self-reliance… but.

So much waste, so much impact on a fragile site, so many thousands of gallons of fuel and tons of CO2 spewed to bring people here and back again. So many of the so-called lessons of preparation for this event are simply solved by throwing massive amounts of money and resources at the problem? None of this is sustainable, and a lot of it just felt, icky.

The temple was a transcendent place where I made authentic connections with some very real people, and a living embodiment of loss and a celebration of life… including someone dear to me taken away far too soon. I brought her memory and images here, a place she had wanted to go, and still carry the heaviness with me, but a bit lighter? Humans need ritual, radical or otherwise.

This trip was not my idea, but for that, I went along for the ride, and danced away some of the sadness and deep loss of this difficult year.