6.Sep.2026, Sunday
Most of the day was spent taking down the rest of camp, and our shelter. Our plan was to leave first thing Monday morning, with everything ready to go. We then went out for a beautiful sunset ride seeing art that was still up and aiming for the Temple.
People gathered all around the Temple, as they had the Man. This time, it was silent, everyone was sitting, quiet, the art cars gathered, but silently and low lights.
There was a Native American flute being played somewhere behind us. It was beautiful and perfect.
We then watched another beautifully orchestrated and huge burn. The way the layers of wood lit up, incredible. And quiet. So many farewells given such a perfect ending. I wouldn’t have missed it for anything.
7.Sep.2026, Monday
We drove out early this morning, maybe by 7:30? And there was no line at all, just a steady small stream of exiters. I saw 3 crows and realized again that we’d seen almost no live beings other than people for this entire time. It’s truly a barren desert, different from any other deserts I’ve experienced. I’m so glad I got to have this experience.
I’ve been asked what were my take aways.
One is that the participants take seriously the 10 principles. Self-reliance and sufficiency is a big one. This leads people to doing what needs to be done and no complaining. I never heard anyone complain about the weather or anything else. They just did what they needed to do and didn’t make a big thing out of it. That was beautiful.
Another was the lack of devices. That was truly a gift from and to the community. People talked at every turn. No one was looking at their devices. Yes, people would take photos, but not even a ton, and never so that it was what they were doing, rather it was just taking a photo. People were immersed in the experience, not in their phones. It took me a while to understand how different it made the climate. People would meet up, start a conversation and then it was brief or it became long. Just interesting. And the Instagrammers? Actually few and far between. I know from friends that there were a lot of photos, posts coming out of the event, but I just didn’t see that many people posing and posing and posing.
The culture really is that of a separate place and mindset. It only took me about three brief conversations (though they were nice) to understand that people wanted to be different here. Leave behind the business, rigidness, time scheduled life that most of us lead. To the point that often people had a “burner name”. At first I thought this was just silly, but then I realized it was a “tangible” way of reinforcing “I can be a different person here.” From the outside, that was conveyed as wearing as much or as little as you wanted and doing drugs. But it was much more than that. It was a freeing. An exploration. An opening. Really wonderful. I don’t have that need, but I’m not in my 20’s, 30’s etc and trying to figure out if I’m launching into a life I really want. People talked and talked and often I overheard real exploratory conversations. Kind of like what we all did in college when we thought we were so grown up and serious. But now these people have experienced what it means to be an adult and how do they want to live this life they’ve been given. Yes, that’s not everyone, but I saw it a lot.
Finally, the consistent and generous kindness. From all the that the different camps offered – rest in the Lavender Lounge, coffee first thing in the morning, massages (of all kinds!), all free. There’s no currency, except that of giving. And then the individual kindnesses. Jumping to help someone who’s fallen, has bike trouble, needs electrolytes, needs shelter. A conversation because someone is sad. That was a wonderful piece of the culture.
