Kristy's Blog

Reprinted from the AzBurner Listserve:

I realize that many find it hard to readjust to the default world when we return and some folks take a few extra days to decompress. Sadly don’t have the luxury to ease back into work mode. We rolled into Phx on Monday morning and I was up until about 2am that night catching up on email (I opted to not bring a laptop and turned my phone off on Monday at BRC).

So here’s I suggest you do: You don’t leave Burning Man. Very simple – in your mind, in your daily tasks, and most importantly, in the way you treat your family, friends, and total strangers… be kind, be giving, do as you would at BM… within legal limits, and within reason. Gary, Grover, Scotto, NakedMike, Chromy, and so many others… they all live BM principals year round. For example:

• If someone is in need, help out without any expectation of receiving anything in return
• Smile, and greet people. So what if they don’t reciprocate. .. it’s their loss.
• When in the checkout lane, hang up your cell phone, and have a real conversation with the person running the register. They may be repeating their schpeil – but ask them a question and that makes them wake up from their stupor and talk.
• In a restaurant, look your wait staff in the eye, engage in a conversation as you ask for your meal. Don’t treat them like “servers”, rather as “people”… as fellow citizens
• If someone visits, invite them to join you for a meal.
• Find the clothes you don’t use and give them away to goodwill (and pick up some cool threads for the next BM event while you are there!)
• Volunteer at a soup kitchen… or an organization like http://handsonphoen ix.org/

The list goes on.

BRC is just a place. It is the attitude, the mindset, and the people that make it special… and you can bring that with you. Sure… there will be doinks in the default world. There are doinks at BRC. But you don’t have to be one. Nor do you have to sit and complain that others are doinks.

One year I flew out to BRC and on my way back at Reno airport I was so disappointed. There were many obvious burners (clean clothes but playa grey footware) who were back on their cell phones and avoiding eye contact. I was greeted by one burner – turned out it was Windpipe the Clown – and I was new to the AZB community then and didn’t know him, and he didn’t know me… but we smiled, waved, had a conversation. .. and years later I realized it was Windpipe. It was the way it should be.

So don’t mope about leaving BRC. Bring it, or as much of it as you can handle, with you back to the real world.

I’m not trying to sound preachy… so please don’t take this the wrong way. This is just what works for me… and I thought I’d share.

Cheers,

Ruvi