Payaso on the Playa

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The arrival - cruising at 5 mph across the flat expanse of nothingness, a land rover exploring the moon.  Gradually, the emptiness fills with community.  Everyone contributes something - some build huge environments, spout artistic ideas.  Others paint their bodies, build bicycles, dance, scream, sing, perform ... and the sum total is Burning Man.

The waxing moon grows towards full the night of the Burn, lighting each evening's festivities.  As time passes, the walls of daily life, the bonds of western society that each of us possess begin to crumble.  People from all walks of life, who may never normally hang out together, reach instinctual, ecstatic levels, dnacing and drumming around a roaring fire in ancient tribal ritual.  For some, it is only the planting of an idea of change that may one day pass over them.   For others, it is an awakening, an ecstatic change, a fundamental cracking of their shell.

People are extremely helpful - if in need, you can surely find what you need, and help others in need.  The community is brought together through shared experience, through pirate radio, through daily newspapers, and most of all, through dealing with the harsh desert environment as a group.  Dust storms blow through, coating everything with dust and testing various constructions; rain turns the salty caked playa to thick muck; the midday sun cooks the inhabitants.  In the end, the playa returns to its natural, eternal solitude.