Day 7

Sunday was a day spent slowly.

I woke, after having been out late the night before, dancing to an incessant rhythm. James approached me just after waking and informed me we would be breaking the camp down today, to avoid a hurried and stressful decamping on Monday morning. I rallied the troops and we begun dismantling our base. Many hands made light work, and we were mostly done with the heavy lifting within a few hours. The loose ends took a bit longer, and I spent almost all of the day getting things in order. 

Half of our camp departed and partied at Pink Mammoth for a portion of the day. A friend was DJing there, spinning slow melodies and blissful beats for the weary and wounded. Everyone was back before sundown and we intended to head out to the playa to watch The Temple burn. The best laid plans. Half of our crew were late to the event, some were on foot, others on bikes. We were splintered and scattered. Myself, The Profuser and Yu were together for the conflagration.

The Temple burned. Emergent cyclones churning, kicking up dust and charred debris in the flame's wake. It is rare to see something so meaningful set ablaze, slowly consumed by flames, reduced to glowing embers and smoke. Wet mournful eyes reflected the flames like mirrors; mine shone like glass. The burning of The Temple signifies a new beginning, letting go of the past, the end of the burn. 

Letting go requires a recognition, a brief regression. You have to allow yourself to feel what it is you're trying to let go of. You have to reflect on it, let it pass through you one last time, swirling around inside and outside you like inhaled smoke. 

Turning it over in your hand, inspecting it for the last time, you let it fall into the fire, to be burned; carried away into oblivion, where everything eventually...

There's something both sad and beautiful about The Temple burn. It is a moment that is both the end and the beginning; remembrance and forgetting; moving forward while standing still. There should be a word to communicate something that is equal parts beauty and sadness. I find myself recognizing these qualities in things that are powerfully affective; a beautiful song, a well written line. 

...love.