I chose this photo because it is multiple images of the theme camps that surrounded us in 2003, those are our stars, Bollywood was across the street, Eye of Gawd next door, etc., etc., etc

I am home in San Francisco this afternoon, because for my 10th year I did “Burning Man Light”.  Three days, four nights, but as always eye opening, hot, dusty, joyful, difficult, ya’know.  But in just these few days I once again found my campmates facinating.  We camped for several years with beings who bring peace as well as art to the Playa, and then a couple of years with the Bunnies, one year a staff camp and last year a bar camp filled with long time Burners, but where we were far and away the oldest people in the group. 

I always find the “Who ARE my campmates?” interesting!  This year we had a gaggle of newbies some of them software celebrities, crew from the the explOratorium, a rising international artist, a former art curator, a Playa luminary who is also a cartoon director and producer, our camp leader is a mechanical engineer and we have Gate and Artica staff as well as our own DPW Manager, and bringing up the rear, Moze and me, your bloggers.

So how does it come to be that there is this symbiosis of geeks, writers, artists, and engineers?  Some of whom never stop working on the camp and some of whom barely contribute unless there is a request.   I am sure that your camp also has some breadth and depth of engagement with Burning Man.  Is there a type of person you can categorize as a Burner or those that you know would hate Burning Man and yet they end up coming to the Event and loving it?

So when you arrive home and are dreaming of Burning Man tell me a story of a campmate that in some way surprised you, or you did not expect to like and now adore, or about that “thing” that seems to happen, that camps get to a certain size and morph into some other entity, or how you could not imagine camping with anyone else.  The camping with other people can be a huge part of Burning Man and I would love to hear more about it from you!

photo: Pete Slingland