I told myself I did not need another Tribe but the pull was to great. And at the urging of a special friend in New York I feel like sharing a bit of my life and writing.

To start you off, here is an interductory bit about my experience the night of the temple burn at Burning Man.

We first need some background here to set the tones the moods and to give my general sight.

The whole week of Burning Man I was graced with the prescence of Jenn. Jenn is from New York and studies african dance. She works in TV production for a company that works with ads.

Jenn and I had many wonderful nights on the playa. We spent our first night together walking aimlessly. It was weird considering all the sensory attraction to camps and what not. We just kept walking. I think we racked up about 15 miles and a few blisters to show for it. That first night when we got back to camp I washed Jenn's feet and lotioned them up.

The whole week Jenn and I kept rampaging the playa. We shared a tent. Things were very innocent and it was very special to me that we could connect the way we did and not cross each others boundaries. It was like two horses racing through a field each on one side of a fence feeling each other there but not going to close to the barbed wire.

As the week came closer to an end we made the promise that we would watch the temple burn together. The night of the temple burn we got our bags ready for a night of drinking and debauchery so synonimous with Burning Man. We loaded up the usual supplies.

"Vodka" She says
"Check" I reply
"Goggles" She says
"Check" I reply

And so on we went through the necessities. We got our comfortable shoes on and began our departure for the night of fire and embers.

We originally took off with our campmates but this only lasted five minutes before we altered our path to be together. We come upon the temple in all of its magnificent shape and work our way through this throbbing crowd. The energy felt as if someone had released bees and they were transporting this emotion all over the crowd. We managed finally to squeeze up near the back of the groups of sitting people. Jenn stood in front of me leaning back into my arms. We were right next to the Space Cowboys mutant vehicle. All of these speakers strapped to the front almost like in the movie "Pump up the volume". They were broadcasting the singer over the speakers so crystal clear we here a soft womans voice almost filled with tears singing "AveMaria". It was beautiful. We just sat quiet feeling this moment as the crowd was pulsing with anticipation. We listened as people with thier laser pointers were thwarted and forced into compliance with the general consensus.

I had earlier in the day gone and written my message to my grandfather who had passed and my oldest brother who had left me nearly ten years ago. I felt so much emotion just looking at these messages and photos of people passed and I think at this moment the impact of the temple really sunk in.

So back to the temple burn. As we are standing the crowd is getting larger and I am feeling people pushing on my back just trying to get a better view. I really got upset with this at this moment. I got past it quick thought as I see three mylar kites flying right above the one span of walkway that leads to the temple. These kites to me looked like jellyfish just hovering with an eye over the crowd. The slowly swooped and moved. Before I knew it one went crashing down almost as if the jellyfish had lost one of their own and stayed high up to pay their respects. Finally the moment was here. I see the torch in the hand of my guess would be David Best.

I swear that David Best has got to be a very giving person to be able to build such structures and to allow people to add their memory to his work. Then after all of it he burns it to ash to only begin again. It makes me think of Sisyphus pushing his boulder up the hill only to start again. The repitition must be a maddening feeling.

So with the torches the first flames are lit on this giant structure. With the flame starting the outline of this massive space really starts to overshadow the size of the crowd and the vehicles parked close. Two more torches are lit. They are placed in the columns in front of the temple. Slowly this fire snakes its way upward wanting to carry the messages of so many to the skies. As the flame rises to the main tower the smoke and ash are flying. Jenn and I are in the path. We watch at the temple spits embers of hot burning wood onto the people. Almost spiting them reminding them that they are human and subject to pain. Jenn being from New York is getting a bit worried and wants to get out of the line of fire. We are smelling burnt hair at this point. People around us are slowly panicing as the smell drifts. This crowd is so enveloped in the moment most do not look up to see the embers raining fire on their bodies. Jenn grabs my hand and proceeds to drag me through the crowd. She is darting and dodging every which way until she gets to a point she feels comfortable. We both crack open a beer because we have triumphed we are unscathed.

As the burn goes on we hold eachother tight. Jenn and I then decide to get a unique view of the fire and walk to the trash fence. I swear it felt like miles but with the light of the fire illuminates the dust in unique ways. We got to the trash fence and sat down just holding eachother and watching the flames from a distance. At about this point the tree that was directly behind the temple begins to burn with such an intense yearning to be like its bigger counter part. People are drifting between the two fires. We turn in time to see the moon giant and bright rising. At first we thought it was a ranger or police vehicle turning its attention on us. The wind slowly is picking up and the chill is descending.

We sat for a bit sharing a lot of quiet moments and a few sparse converstaions. Slowly we made our walk from the trash fence to the furthest point we could see. We walked and talked already with visions in our eyes of next year. We went back to camp after this hike. We curled up together and each shed a tear over the sadness that was starting to close in. The following day was departure. Time for the real world. We shared a quick kiss on the cheek and then it was lights out.



So now I hope you are happy Cheshyre. This is for you and better read the whole thing there is a test in the morning.

Jason