What Lasts

The Man Burns Early (Burning Man 2007)

2:20AM and we were all in Gigsville watching the lunar eclipse. I was ten minutes from my tent when I heard the news. It wasn't until I climbed atop my friends' art car that I believed it.

Someone had finally gone and done it. They set the man on fire...and five days early.

My team and I had just finished five days of working on the neon for him. It was hard work. More than normal. More neon, special plasma glass custom made by our friend Dylan and now it was all gone. I rushed out on my bike to see for myself. By the time I got out to the man base the fire companies had knocked nearly all of the fire down as sirens blared everywhere.

I knew then what was going to happen. Before I road to First Camp with our team leader to speak to Larry, before we saw Crimson broken by this artless act of attention seeking, I knew what everybody on the team was thinking. We were going to rebuild him.

Dozens of people who had just finished their labors were about to put away their week of being with friends and go back to work.

And that's what we did.
And we would do it again if necessary. While a large contingent declares the wingnut who did this a hero, we were the rare few who saw and felt the real cost of this.

The second man rose again in three days and if you looked with special eyes, you would see a small message written upon his waist, "There is STILL a light that shines in the darkness..."

Today I received the following email and it reaffirmed why we all did what we did.

"Just wanted to say thank you for being one of the people to rebuild the man, for sacrificing your burn for the benefit of mine and people like me. Being one of the newbies, I really appreciated seeing the man burn. I appreciated the entire spectacle, but, even more so, I appreciated the energy of the wonderful people around me. I had an incredible virgin burn. Nothing to compare it to, I suppose, but I can't find words to describe how happy I feel whenever I think about it.
I'll be back, for sure.
Jane"

Thank you, Jane.....

Nikon D200 with a 2 second hand held exposure from a bike somewhere around 3 on the dial and many days from resting again