This Post contributed by Ranger Carousel

“RANGER!”

Black Rock City’s all-volunteer Rangers sometimes head to incidents based on calls they get on the radio, but in my years as a Ranger, I’ve heard about far more participants who have expressed a need from shout-outs of this type.

Rangers are Burners, volunteer community members who give their spare time and energy at Burning Man (and many, many regionals) to help keep the citizens of Black Rock City safe.  The skill involved in properly “rangering” is astounding.  With little more than the right words said at the right time, most tense situations that Rangers encounter get de-escalated and the burners involved end up taking a breath and then going back out to have fun in the city.

Ranger Carousel, AKA my son, Jacob Markow

Rangers have many tools at their disposal. Every Ranger is trained in de-escalation and mediation techniques, as well as how to tell when they need to call for back-up if they are out of their depth.  Green Dot Rangers have special training to deal with mental health issues in the field and to sit with participants in need of longer-term care in the quiet area that Rangers call Sanctuary. Intercept is a group of specially trained Rangers who help stop and educate people who are driving on the playa in ways that could be dangerous to other participants.

There are Rangers who have special training and skills in dealing with dangerous art and large fires, Rangers who specialize in helping get the right tools and assistance to other Rangers in the field, Rangers who help the police to understand the community standards and perspectives of burners.  All of these skills and many more, including medical, fire, and emergency mental health services are just a radio call away for a Ranger in the field.

Night of the Burn:  Ranger Carousel on perimeter watch

In a sea of chaos, Rangers are there at the very crest of the wave, letting participants have whatever experience they seek, but being there in case someone is needed to help pick up the pieces.  They are not police, not security, but they are part of the very heart of the Burning Man community, as they are just burners who are committed to helping other burners have a great time.

(Editor’s note:  This story was prepared by Ranger Carousel, who happens to be my oldest son.  I’m extremely proud of the work he does as a Black Rock Ranger and would encourage everyone reading this post to give all the Rangers due appreciation for their volunteer effort.  You might also consider volunteering your services as a Ranger.  You can never tell how the value of your experience can be put into service at Burning Man.)

One reason Burning Man is what I call “the world turned on its head for seven days” is because of its gifting economy.  But the concept is a little hard to get for some people.  I frequently have to correct people who believe “gifting” means “bartering.”  But give doesn’t mean trade, and gifting means giving away whatever you have to offer.  Some people gift their skills to the community:  massage therapists, bicycle repairers, bartenders, for example.  Everyone gives their presence to Black Rock City as we all become members of the community.  And many of us give through volunteer work.

Judie and I take great delight in the opportunities that BRC provides for us to give back.  Within our camp, we volunteer to help in the kitchen and tend bar.  We also volunteer to be Greeters one night each year.  More about that in a minute.

We also volunteer as Temple Guardians one night each Burn, and we’ll publish more about Temple Guardians soon.  Our Lamplighters camp depends heavily on volunteers to put out the lamps every night.  In fact, it’s one of the Rites of Passage for Burners to take a turn as a Lamplighter at least once during each Burning Man.

Where’d that come from?  Art on the Playa

We take a turn as Greeters along with a group of our Lamplighter campmates, and what a great night that has turned out to be.  Greeters are the people who welcome you into Burning Man, provide some crucial information about life on the playa, and hand out the program booklet that tells pretty much everything going on during the week.  Greeters are not the ticket takers or the people who have to check your vehicle for contraband, we’re just the happy group that says “Welcome Home” when you arrive at the gate and – if you’re new to the Burn – get you to ring the virgin bell.

We always get festooned up in our best Burning Man costumes for our Greeters shift so that all arriving Burners get into the spirit as quickly as possible.  As Greeters, we meet people from all over the country and around the world.  We know we’re the “voice” of Burning Man when we do our Greeters shift so we try our best to reflect the fun and craziness that makes Burning Man what it is.  I can’t recommend highly enough taking a Greeters shift at least once.  It’s an exhausting, exhilarating fun ride.  If you’re interested, contact toplessdeb@gmail.com for more information.

Giving back is a concept that most people in our age group understand very well.  We’ve lived long enough to have seen both the importance of volunteering for our communities, and felt the personal value that accrues to us as volunteers.

Burning Man makes it easy to find and sign-up for volunteer opportunities.  At the Burn itself, the Playa Info tent is the place to go.  But there are plenty of opportunities listed on the Burning Man website (www.burningman.com) or via eplaya, the electronic bulletin board of the Burning Man community.

For in-depth answers to your questions about volunteering at Burning Man, go to the Volunteer FAQ at http://www.burningman.com/participate/volunteer_faq.html.

We welcome your ideas and anecdotes about volunteering at Burning Man.  In the near future we’ll be publishing pieces on some of the many possibilities for you to participate as volunteers at Burning Man.  Stay tuned.

When I first planned my trip to Burning Man with my son Eric, he looked into where we should stay and selected Lamplighters.  His decision was based on a careful evaluation of our situation:  we were going on our own; we had no existing knowledge or experience nor any existing relationships; we were completely responsible for ourselves.

Lamplighters (or any theme camp) offered us a ready-made community, which seemed like a smart way to start our Burning Man experience.  Also, Lamplighters was one of the few theme camps with its own kitchen to provide an evening meal.  Also, because Lamplighters was a well-established part of the Burning Man tradition, we felt very comfortable joining this group.  It also turned out that Eric and I had a great time learning the Lamplighters routine and participating in the nightly ritual of “lighting the city.”

In my second year at Burning Man, when Judie decided she would join us, it simply made sense to go back to the theme camp that had been such a good choice in year one.  Judie and I found a niche for ourselves in the morning pickup crew, while Eric continued his role helping to light the city every night.  By our third year, Judie and I had become well integrated into the Lamplighter environment, but Eric decided it was time to move on, joining a camp with his brother Jacob who was attending his first Burning Man.

Night of the Burn — An Amazing Experience

One of the major reasons we feel so comfortable as Lamplighters (where we continue to participate) is that there are both younger and older people in the camp; although, Judie and I are probably the two oldest people there.  But because of Lamplighter’s long history as an important part of the Burning Man tradition, there are Burners who have been around for many years and are a little closer to our age.  We also love to be around the many young Lamplighters who inspire us and help keep us feeling youthful.  I don’t think we’d enjoy a camp of just older people.  After all, one of the real advantages of attending Burning Man at our age is that it makes us feel so much younger.

As the years have gone by, we’ve participated in more volunteer activities with our camp.  We love to spend at least one night as part of the kitchen crew, to take a shift or two behind the bar, and to take a Greeters shift with our fellow Lamplighters.  And because we have been part of Lamplighters for a number of years, we always get advance notice of the volunteer opportunities.

Eric made a great choice when he picked out Lamplighters, and we continue to enjoy staying in this theme camp.  But it’s important to realize that the choice we made was based on researching the available camps and sizing up the benefits for our particular situation.  There are many ways to find a place to stay, including hooking up with local Burners and finding out about camps that are based locally or are known and recommended by others.

Remember, you’ll be spending a week (or the better part of a week) in the camp you select, so put some energy into making the right choice.

So many choices…there are 50,000 or more people at Burning Man each year.  Some stay in tents, some in RV’s and some in innovative, self-made housing that defies description.  Despite the seemingly endless array of choices about where to camp, there are really only two types of camping to consider:  camping on your own or camping with a theme camp.

Advantages and Disadvantages

There are good and logical reasons to choose either individual camping or participating in a theme camp, so it seems best to begin by review the pluses and minuses of the two choices.

Camping on your own.  You can have the luxury of peace and quiet by choosing a site far from Center Camp.  Individual campsites are all located further away from the action than are theme camps.  But remember that you’re completely on your own without a ready-made community.  If you’re camping alone, make doubly sure that you have all the supplies you need so that you won’t need to rely on others.  It’s not that people are unfriendly and won’t help you if you have a problem, but camping on your own implies that you want a high degree of independence and you’re willing to prepare yourselves for all contingencies.

Many people like being away from the action near center camp because it’s much easier to get a good night’s sleep.  Nearer to the action and inside large theme camps, there are activities day and night, and disco-blasting art cars tend to roam nearby.  Farther out on the individual camping areas, the mood is tranquil and sleep tends to come easier.

My first year — tent camping with the Lamplighters

Theme camping.  When you become part of a theme camp you are joining a (usually) collegial group of Burners who share some common interests.  Theme camps often provide for meals (each person contributes a share of the food and takes a shift or two in the kitchen), and also provide a focus for your activities.  The “theme” is often a gift to the Burner community that you must participate in.  Sometimes its entertainment, sometimes therapeutics such as massage, sometimes some whimsical idea such as giving compliments to people walking near the camp.  Whatever the theme, you’ll be expected to “work” a certain number of hours supporting it during your stay at Burning Man.

If you’re going to join a theme camp, check out what is required of you first.  You’ll surely be asked to contribute supplies such as food, liquor and even furniture.  You might even be asked to pay a fee to join certain theme camps.  It’s up to you to decide if you want to join a theme camp with a fee or find one that just requires normal contributions of supplies.

As an example of theme camps, I stay with Lamplighters.  Lamplighters’ prime directive is to “Light the City Nightly” with a world-class collection of approximately 1,000 kerosene lanterns that are hung from stanchions placed strategically along major thoroughfares including the Esplanade, the main “keyholes” at 3 and 9 o’clock, Center Camp, the Man and the Temple and routes to those landmarks.

The lanterns are set out in a nightly ceremony that’s a true celebration of the spirit of Burning Man and requires volunteers from among the Black Rock citizenry.  To help recruit volunteers, the 200 or so full-time Lamplighters hold two of BRC’s largest party’s of the Festival – the Sangria Soiree on Monday and the Bloody Mary Brunch on Wednesday.  Open to all, these parties are marked by free-flowing libations served by Lamplighters who remind all attendees to come out at least once during Burning Man to volunteer as a “carrier”, “lifter” or “support” during the lighting ceremony at 4 p.m. each evening.  Many regular burners wouldn’t miss the opportunity of playing a role in “lighting the city” and following the cry of the Luminaries (leaders) “Make Way for the Lamplighters,” and the return call from BRC citizens “Thank you, Lamplighters.”

(An expanded description of Lamplighters as well as many other aspects of Burning Man can be found at Kit O’Connell’s A Burner’s Lexicon (http://kitoconnell.com/writing/lexicon/), an excellent reference site for all things Burning Man.)

I’d love to hear from others about their experiences at camping on your own, picking a theme camp, and dealing with the pluses and minuses of both ways of experiencing Burning Man.

The short answer is that you probably can’t.  At the very least, it won’t be easy.  Then again, Burning Man isn’t for everybody.  We’ve been proselytizing the Burning Man experience for seven years with only marginal success, but that hasn’t dampened our evangelical zeal.  Eventually, someone shows up, and even though there’s a better than even chance that they’ll hate it, some few will love it and come back again.

We accept the reality that Burning Man is especially intimidating for our age group.  It intimidated me when I first attended at age 60, and I never would have gone if not for the wishes of my 20-year-old son.  So we try to target our messages in specific ways for specific individuals.  More importantly, we always include frank discussions about the downsides of Burning Man – you know, the dust, the heat, the porta-potties – and how we’ve learned to cope with them.

So what compels an individual or couple to join you at Burning Man?  Five things come to mind:

Judie powers the famous Monkey-go-round from the 2006 Burn

1. The art.  Older people tend to be more interested in art than the younger crowd.  For many of us, Burning Man is all about art that is created on one of the world’s most unusual canvases – the Black Rock Desert.  If you’ve been to the Burn, you already have the material you need to close the deal:  your photos of the amazing artwork.  Even if you don’t have photos of your own, there are literally thousands of examples available for free on websites about Burning Man.  Check out these example from the Huffington Post for a starter, and share them with your friends.  These images will stir the imagination of art lovers and make their mouths water for a week on the Playa.
2. The change.  There’s no better way to experience a “change of pace” than going to Burning Man.  I’ve often described the festival as the world turned on its head for seven days.  If there’s anything of the humdrum to your friends’ lives, you can entice them with a week they will never forget.  From the moment they’re greeted with the traditional “Welcome Home,” your friends will know they’re “not in Kansas anymore” when they’re experiencing Burning Man.
3. The laughs.  There’s so much whimsy at Burning Man that you find yourself smiling day and night.  And we all know that laughter is the best medicine.  So tell your friends that they’ll be happier and healthier after a week in the desert.  Here’s a site to share with your friends that features some of the awesome and hilarious art cars on the Playa.
4. New friends.  Our trips to Burning Man have introduced us to a group of friends we never would have met otherwise.  There’s no comparing our Burner friends with our neighbors and work associates from other parts of our lives (what Burners call the Default World).  Our Facebook pages are brimming with thoughts, ideas and experiences from Burners that enhance our lives and make us feel younger every day.
5. Boobs.  I have very few male friends who don’t ask to see my pictures from Burning Man every year hoping to see images of the naked females that abound on the Playa.  If you attend the Critical Tits bike ride, you’ll see more boobs than you’ve ever dreamed of.  And that’s a good thing, from my perspective.  So if your friends can’t be convinced by high-minded reasons to attend the Burn, just tell ‘em about the boobs.

Hold a slide show or just share a picture album, but bring the Playa to life if you want to entice your friends to join you next year at Burning Man.  Good luck.

Most of the “rules of the road” for all Burners are collected for you in a single, invaluable publication called the Survival Guide. You can link to a PDF copy of the most recent Guide by clicking on http://www.burningman.com/preparation/event_survival/index.html and looking for the Survival Guide link at the top of the right-hand column. Here you’ll find all the important information about such critical matters as the amount of water you’ll need to bring and the dangers of heat stroke.

But for older Burners, there’s a step or two that we are well-advised to take in preparation for our trip.

1. Burning Man can be a physically taxing event. Transportation within Black Rock City is generally limited to bikes and walking (art car rides are always possible, but rarely reliable or able to deliver you to a specific destination). Be prepared for some tough biking conditions because, even with a flat-as-a-pancake Playa, the buildup of sand can make for some pedaling distress.

It helps if you’re a regular biker with calves of steel, but if you’re just the average occasional cyclist, you might want to spend a few weeks getting in shape prior to the Burn. Even more important, if you haven’t ridden a bike in years (or ever), better get your internal gyro geared up.

Biking is the only reasonable way to cover the vast territory of Burning Man – to see plenty of the art and visit your choice of events and activities. Walking is simply too inefficient and, especially during the day, too exhausting. So be prepared and don’t let yourself cramp up because you haven’t taken a few extra hours to get in shape.

2. Plan to rest. Burning Man is a 24-hour-a-day festival and you’ll never get to everything, but you’ll miss more if you don’t take time out of your schedule to rest. Mid-day is my favorite rest time for obvious reasons: it’s too hot to do much else. My wife and I take our RV to the Burn so we can rest mid-day in air conditioning. I know how horribly un-ecological and non-camping that sounds, but it’s part of the reality of being older. We trade off some of the Burning Man experience for creature comforts that allow us to attend for the entire festival.

Judie and Alan enjoying a rare cool morning nap

There are options other than RVs for keeping cool such as insulated tents with their own swamp-cooler devices (humidity is generally single digit on the Playa, so one of those low power-consuming units might just do the job if you engineer your quarters properly.

During my first year, I tent-camped with my son, and I’ll never forget the experience. But I hardly slept at all. Between the magical deflating air mattress and the art cars circling our area, sleeping was not really an option. Fortunately, I was so enthralled with the event that I had the spirit and energy to keep going. Although I occasionally fell out during the day from pure exhaustion, I found mid-day napping nearly impossible because the heat was so efficiently captured inside our tent.

So stay cool, stay rested and get in shape to make your Burn both memorable and safe.

Please let us know your other ideas and suggestions for staying safe at Burning Man when you’re of a “certain” age.

Many adults, much less seniors, won’t attend Burning Man out of fear. How many of life’s richest possible experiences are missed for this same reason? So I’d like to spend the next few posts allaying fears about the festival and – I hope – eliciting additional concerns that have stopped you from attending one of the greatest examples of Americana still going strong annually.

Eric and Alan in Lamplighter Garb

Let’s start with the general issue of what happens if you get hurt or ill at Burning Man. There is probably no place in the world with better, cheaper and more reliable healthcare than Burning Man. Think I’m kidding? Black Rock City is a model for universal healthcare that is largely free for all, easily accessible and totally wired into the nearest system of critical care facilities (Reno).

This unified healthcare organization has been refined over the years to near perfection. What used to be a single, centrally located medical tent near center camp has now been split into a decentralized group of medical tents at three different sites around the playa. Any one of the dozens of active Black Rock Rangers can radio for a golf cart or an EMT van which will reach you in minutes, or you can be walked over to a medical tent if you’re ambulatory. If a Ranger doesn’t see you’re in trouble, a Black Rock citizen will, and that’s when you see the difference between a city and our City. No one passes by people who appear to be having a problem without checking on them.

Once you reach one of the medical facilities, you’ll be evaluated and treated by trained doctors and nurses who volunteer for set shifts in exchange for free entry to the festival. These medical professionals are fully trained not only in their own areas of expertise, but in the typical problems that beset people on the playa – including dehydration, sunstroke, eye irritation and simply excessive partying. For most Burners, they’re back on the playa in anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours. Our medical magicians even make house calls if you’re too sick to leave your tent or RV.
Although services of the doctors and nurses are completely without charge, the EMT services and ambulances are not cost-free, nor are rides to Reno (whether by ambulance or, in extreme emergencies, by helicopter). But all services take insurance and Medicare.

In six trips to the playa, beginning at age 60, I have never been to one of the medical tents except to pick up my son who has needed his eyes irrigated a few times. We know that the best way to prevent problems is to prepare for life on the playa, and that will be the subject of my next article.

The last week in August 2007 CNN reported that the Burning Man in Black Rock City had been burned by an arsonist five days before his scheduled immolation.
Most people who heard the report probably wondered, “What the hell is the Burning Man and where is Black Rock City?” For a week Black Rock was the fifth largest city in Nevada, and boasted a population of 47,000 people.

But you could not find it on a map, and if you called information, there would be no listing for it. Most people there failed to hear the evening news. And cell phones don’t work in the Nevada desert. And the mode of transportation for the able bodied is mostly a bicycle or few of what is known as an art car or a mutant vehicle.
The week at Burning Man was a spectacle rivaling Cirque Du Soleil, Disneyland, and one’s first visit to the County Fair. It felt like being in the world of Star Wars created by George Lucas, or some sequence in a Fellini movie. I felt as if I were walking around in the best dream I ever had.

But this show was real and it was free. Like the Hobby Horse Dance in Padstow Cornwall on May Day, there were no t-shirts or gaudy gew gaws being hawked on street corners. Nothing was for sale except ice and coffee. You would probably be given anything you desired before you even had to articulate it. All you needed to do was get on your bicycle and find your way to a free meal, a dance, a library, or a bar of almost any description. Not far from our tent was a red bearded bartender whose fare was all home brewed, and his “bar” was a coffin with taps. And some evening places of entertainment rivaled the Prince’s palace in Arabian Nights.

It is difficult to explain to someone who is not “A burner” what goes on in Black Rock City. You could go to www.burningman.com and see visions of shows, art and costumes from other years. You might listen to stories of people who had attended before about the wonders they had experienced. However, reading through the survival guide, you might begin to wonder if it was really worth the journey.

It is definitely worth the trials and tribulations of getting there, and is almost “guaranteed to blow your mind.”

First of all, it is a “tribal” reality. There were hundreds of drummers from all over the world, yet they merged and melded into one heartbeat. It was the first thing you heard on awakening, and the last sound registered while falling asleep. There is action going on 24 hours a day. It is impossible to take it all in. Some if the younger citizens may dance round the clock for the first day or two. But perhaps the best way to experience it is to set off for some workshop, parade or party, and let the synchronicity of what you find on the way be your guide.

My reason for attending was the theme chosen for this year – The Green Man. He has been in my life for thirty years.

I first saw his image on a pub sign in England, where I was living at the time. When I spotted his leaf-clad figure holding a cane, which sprouted leaves, I stood stock still – transfixed by the image. It was one of those moments that Joseph Campbell called “being transparent to the transcendent”. I knew him at the deepest level of my being, yet I had no explanation for his presence on a pub sign in the middle of a noonday rainstorm.

I rushed in to ask the publican – busy pouring lunchtime pints for wet, thirsty people – and asked a dozen questions which came rushing out, “who is the Green Man, and why is he dressed in leaves, and why is there a may pole in the background and ….”.
He looked at me with one of those looks English people give Americans who are discovering some minutiae from 2,000 years of civilization, and said “I don’t know, lady, its just an old pub sign – been there for as long as I can remember”.

The next two times I saw pub signs with his image – The Green Man and French Horn, and The Green Man and bush, I repeated my futile questions with no better results. Then I went to the Cecil Sharpe House where aspects of popular culture and its history are preserved. There is an excellent library, but one can also hear the sounds of folk music played by penny whistle and bodhran, or the pounding footsteps of a dozen Morris dancers learning to keep old traditions alive.

The answers to the questions I had asked were found in an old (green) volume about pub signs. The Green Man, Savage Man or Woodwose was lord of the forest, keeper of the seasons, protector of animals and children. And English people had been acting out rituals including costumed and masked representations of the Green Man for centuries. I found descriptions of him going back to the time of Queen Elizabeth I, with the intimation that he was, in fact, much, much older.

There was an extended bibliography, which sent me scurrying to the Victoria and Albert archives and the catacombs of the British Museum library. I was obsessed as I traced his roots and his image back through the centuries and across boundaries of countries from Istanbul to Beirut. I found him in churches and cathedrals, carved on the facades of buildings and on furniture, dancing around the borders of illuminated manuscripts, and even carved on an old bellows for sale in a cobbler’s shop in Henley on Thames.

In 1980 I published The Green Man simultaneously in the U.S. (Charles Scribers) and the U.K. (The Bodley Head).

It is the story of a rich, arrogant young man, Claude, who does not believe the Green Man is real, and makes fun of the poor peasants who leave food out for him. But as the publican warns him – “ terrible things happen to those who make fun of old beliefs”.
Not long afterwards he finds himself stranded in the woods with no food or clothing. He is forced to survive on what he can obtain in the forest, and slowly discovers the wonders of nature, and his relationship to it. In time he realizes that he is responsible for preserving the balance of nature, and realizes that he has become the Green Man.
The Green Man was a ritual figure who was replaced each year. Perhaps long ago he was literally killed like the sacrificial figure in Dionysian rites. But I found no historical evidence of this having been the case in England.

In the ballad “John Barleycorn” he is planted, nurtured, then cut down, beaten, boiled and turned into beer. Death and rebirth are certainly part of his heritage. Some such character appears in the folklore of every country. Another song associated with him is “The Lord of the Dance”. This has become a Christian hymn, “Tis a Gift to be Simple” (Aaron Copeland borrowed part of it for his “Appalachian Spring Suite”).

Of all the pagan folkloric figures, only the Green Man has been allowed to remain in churches and cathedrals. There are many parallels between Jesus and the Green Man, and I once found a bas relief of Jesus as a Green Man with the title “I am the vine, you are the branches”.

By the time the book was finished, I had so much material about the Green Man and his origins that I turned it into a sound filmstrip for Weston Woods (now owned by Scholastics) entitled “Tracing a Legend” in which I chronicled my year of research, during which I discovered that he was related to Gawain and the Green Knight, Saint George, Merlin, and was precursor of Hamlet. As an archetype he has persisted in most countries, even turning up as the Green Giant in grocery stores, and The Hulk of comic book and movie fame.

During the decades since I wrote the book and produced the filmstrip, I have continued to find aspects of him, which keep him recurring at significant periods in my life. He reminds me that we should always remain “Green” and young at heart. We must be aware of our relationship to nature, and our responsibility to the planet and our children who will inherit the fruits that we have sown – for good or ill.

The week before I went to Nevada, I spent a week in Boulder Colorado with my son and his family. My grandchildren aged 6 and 9 made masks of the Green Man, and we talked about what it means to be Green – our responsibility to the earth and to each other, and how we can learn to be Green consumers.

This year the green Burning Man figure was burned ahead of time by a deranged arsonist, but by the week’s end the Man had been reconstructed – now with a phoenix pictured on his face. But for what was also a Green Man figure, this was a wake-up call to all attending the festival. Unless we are willing to make changes in our habits personally, and as a society, nature may not be able to continue to renew herself. (Gala, the name given the personification of Earth is the feminine equivalent of the Green Man).

For me the trip was a sacred journey to celebrate with thousands of others the burning of the man, with the solemn belief and knowledge that he will rise again next year – same time, same place in Black Rock City. But like others, I answered some visceral imperative that called us there. Perhaps we were not building a pyramid of mashed potatoes like the protagonist of “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”, but we were drawn there nonetheless.

We live in a material world that values the power that money gives people. Our society places little value on the integrity of the individual, or his spiritual needs. Children are led to enter a field in which they will make a great deal of money. And the ideal Joseph Campbell encouraged – “Follow Your Bliss” is trampled underfoot for decades. Some people at retirement try to find that ideal, but many cannot, because they have forgotten how to play.

To play is to do something for its own sake – not for material rewards, but for the joy it gives us. Einstein said that he was “playing” with ideas when he discovered his theory of relativity. Carl Jung played with rock and mud cities when he was distressed. Picasso said that if he could learn again to draw as a child does (in playing), he would really be a good artist. H.G. Wells and a small group of famous friends played with toy soldiers. He wrote a book about their strategies called Little Wars. Oliver Wendall Holmes wrote, “We don’t stop playing because we get old; we get old because we stop playing”.

Every young creature plays. Konrad Lorenz in King Solomon’s Ring talked at great length about play, and how it teaches the young to act out the skills which will sustain them as adults. But perhaps the most significant work on the subject is Homo Ludens – (Man the Player) by Johann Huizinga. In it he traces the development of most essential human endeavors from play. These include: religious or yearly festivals, sports of all kinds, theater, military strategy and law. Yet, though play is still evident in all these institutions, he rates the need for play as one of the most important activities in which we engage.

The yearly festival of The Burning Man is all about play. It is play for grownups, and people return each year because in this city, they can do whatever they like without fear of reprisal or community disapproval. There is a sense of exuberance in the air, which picks your spirits up and whirls you around like the wind blows the ever-present playa dust.

So people dress up or dress down (it is clothing optional). They parade, they dance and sing. They give away their talents to inform, enlighten or titillate the spirits of others around them – They walk on stilts, dance with fire, and give lessons in whatever they excel at – from belly dancing and juggling to riding a penny farthing. There are workshops every day for decorating your bicycle or your body.

And they fill this extraordinary “city” with floats rivaling those at Mardi Gras. You can walk or ride across the Playa at any hour of the day or night, and expect to see a fire breathing dragon, a fantasy riverboat, a carousel, or Sheharazade on a magic carpet with room for anyone who wants to ride. You may see a traveling Victorian house, or encounter the “Bipolar Express”. These are art cars – dreamed up by “camps” of people. But there are also “mutant vehicles” – pedal driven, or constructed on the base of a golf cart. There are hundreds of these driving up and down the streets playing music (from classical to rap) and sometimes throwing gifts. There were a few versions of rickshaws with pedal pushing drivers. And there was one man in oriental garb pulling a beautiful macramé cart – giving rides to anyone who asked.

My significant other (Mehl Renner) and I turned our tent into the Green Man’s head. Dozens of people came to chat with us in our matching tie-died long johns (it does get cold at night) as we had our morning coffee by the Green Man’s head. We constructed this effigy in Mehl’s back yard in Charlotte, and shipped the pieces across the country. I made a twenty-foot Balinese flag to help us find our way back to our tent home.

By now, most of Black Rock City has been dismantled; nothing remains except a squad of volunteers picking up whatever “moop” (matter out of place) the revelers left behind. One of the few commands of this society is to leave the desert as pristine as it was before the festival.

Re-entry into straight life is hard. Now it is this life that seems surreal after the freedom of expression we enjoyed for seven days. However, we know that Black Rock City will live again.

If we lived in California, there would be “burner” parties going on throughout the year. I do not believe we will find any such party in Charlotte. However, as far as the Green Man goes, there is a movement or “brotherhood” afoot in some parts of the country where groups of costumed Green People turn up in masse at renaissance Fairs across the country. This is certainly appropriate, since Renaissance Charivaris, and other festivals usually featured Green Men or Wild Men. Albert Durer drew dozens of them, Leonardo included them in his art, and Michrlangelo even sculpted some.
And who knows, perhaps next year there will be a Charlotte “camp” at the Burning Man festival.

It was a very significant, magical, green experience that has created an everlasting yearn to burn!

(Editor’s Note:  Thanks to Gail E. Haley for this beautiful piece of writing.  Contributions to this site are welcomed — Alan Markow, editor and Burner)

I felt great trepidation once I had agreed to attend my first Burning Man Festival.  My fears focused on the many levels of misery I would experience during what seemed like an endless seven days in the desert.

Would I have to get naked? Would I have to take drugs? Would I suffer sunburn and dehydration? Would I get lost in a dust storm?

I was hoping to survive the event, and I certainly never expected to enjoy myself. What a surprise then to realize that Burning Man turned out to be not only fun, but also the most pressure-free environment I had ever experienced in my life. Nothing was expected of me. Others may have gone naked (a small percentage, I might add), but no one expected it of me. Others might have done drugs (I definitely saw some marijuana being imbibed, but there was no demand that I do drugs). Others might have partied day and night, but I rested whenever I was tired. It was easy to take care of myself in the desert heat, and one of the prime directives of our camp was to “take care of each other.”

Best of all, from the moment I entered the gates, I felt a freeing spirit descend on me, and the weight of troubles and concerns lift off of my shoulders. It’s no wonder that I came back home noticeably younger looking and feeling.

Rather than my week in the desert being a miserable experience marked by sunstroke, sunburn and deep bodily embarrassment, it was the experience of a lifetime between myself and my son –remarkable since he was 40 years my junior and had little reason to stick around with his old man in this clearly youthful environment.

But stick with me he did. He watched me like a hawk, making certain his old man was not only okay, but having a great time and getting adequate rest and nutrition. In fact, the one time I had a bit too much to drink, he looked askance at me and said, “Dad, you’re drunk” in an accusing voice. I turned to him and slurred out the words, “Yes, I am,” and began laughing.

It was the greatest bonding experience ever between the two of us, and one we have never forgotten. Although we attended several more Burns together, we never went again without his mom’s presence, and it was never the same special “guy’s” event.

Year 2: Judie enjoys her Barbie moment

As wonderful as my experience with Eric had been, my fears would have been allayed if I had come alone. Nothing I have ever done, and no place I have ever gone, puts less pressure on you than Burning Man. Of course, that was my experience. And I would always caution you to carefully check out the group with whom you’re camping. Some rare camps do not observe the Burning Man spirit of “taking care of each other” and may haze newbies. It should be easy to find that out in advance. If you are camping in a theme camp, do some advance research to determine the history and reputation of the group. If you don’t like what you learn, find another group.

More about theme camps vs. camping on your own shortly.

There’s a reason we call this site sunriseburners and not sunsetburners – even though we’re focused on those of us in our older years.  Burning Man – the annual counter-culture arts festival in the Nevada desert – gives you the leeway to feel and act younger – in fact, to be younger psychically, mentally, spiritually and even physically.

There are at least three reasons why this is so.  No, Woodstock generation, not sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll.  But eroticism is near the top of the list.

If, like me, you believe that sexuality is a life force in the human make-up, then you won’t be surprised to find that large doses of nudity, erotic art and an openness to body pleasures definitely makes you want to kick up your heels.  It’s like a honeymoon for my wife and me (and we’ve been married for nearly 45 years) because of the open enjoyment of sexuality all around us and the constant reminder that we, too, are sexual beings.

Second is the whimsy of Burning Man. We may laugh occasionally throughout the year, but we are constantly laughing while at Burning Man because of the inventiveness of our fellow Black Rock City citizens.  Outrageous costumes, art cars, campsites and performance art will open up the child-like portion of your mind and keep it open until well after you’ve returned to the real (or default) world.

Third is the art.  Burning Man’s canvas is the Black Rock Desert, and its artists produce works befitting its size, scope and changing landscape.  Art may look one way during the day and completely different at night when lit with some fiery effects.  It is magical to walk through the gallery of Burning Man art on the open playa and witness a new generation of artists working in unexplored media in an egalitarian environment (there are no walls or barriers between you and the art at Burning Man).

Keeping the list down to three is practically impossible, because Burning Man is truly the world turned on its head for one full week.  Nothing is what it is like back home.  In future weeks, I look forward to sharing with you more of the magic of Burning Man, plus some practical pointers on plans and preparations should you decide to go, and the best options for older attendees

Please let me know via the comments section what areas you’d like to see covered, or if you have specific questions that you’d like answered.  I look forward to some great conversations.

Alan Markow — Burner, Lamplighter, Grandfather