Every year it gets brought up and although I missed the burn this year for the first time in nine years, I think this thread is an important part of acclimating everyone back to the mundane world (or "reality camp" as some call it)
For most, the first taste of reality comes in trying to drive home. Perhaps its waiting in exodus for hours on end. Perhaps its the traffic on the freeways. Whatever it is, it usually comes as a shock to the system after spending a week in utopia.
So now that most are back, have showered a couple of times and those more adventurous souls have unpacked their stuff or washed their cars...now is the time to start discussing that melancholy feeling you might be experiencing right about now.
Do you miss the playa yet?
Are you sad to be back to the regular world?
What is it about that place that makes you sad to be where you are?
Let's talk about it.
The annual post-playa depression thread
The annual post-playa depression thread
"Be at one with the dust of the earth. This is primal union." - Lao Tsu
-
felony
- Posts: 111
- Joined: Fri Aug 04, 2006 2:03 pm
- Burning Since: 2002
- Camp Name: Barbie Death Camp
- Location: around
My nostrils and my feet are glad to have left the Playa, the rest of me would love to still be there. Not unhappy where I am...just happier in Black Rock. It's my kind of town.
Exodus was long, but fun. We had a large mister and walked up and down the rows of cars providing cooling service. We handed out the remainder of our otter pops, granola bars and ice cubes. It was so slow it was like camping on the other side of town.
I'm glad to be home to see my daughter who missed me very much while I was gone and I need to start planning for NEXT YEAR!
Exodus was long, but fun. We had a large mister and walked up and down the rows of cars providing cooling service. We handed out the remainder of our otter pops, granola bars and ice cubes. It was so slow it was like camping on the other side of town.
I'm glad to be home to see my daughter who missed me very much while I was gone and I need to start planning for NEXT YEAR!
I'm relieved to be back in sf. I'm tired. I'm glad my next breath is not full of dust. I'm happy to not be listening to techno music. I'm happy to not have to constantly tell my neighbors to turn down their music.
I'm thankful for plentiful, flowing water and a clean toilet seat.
I don't mind a good healthy down. I crave quiet.
I find the everyday reality of living in a city to be much more radical, really than burning man will ever be. Burning man is a festival. it is fun, it is interesting. I love the art, the imagination, the people. But a realtime city has so many more strata and classes of people. Burning man is really only one or two strata: the artists who are the outward, exuberant edge of global capital, who are free as one can be and don't care, who are generous and give of their boundless enthusiasm, and the global capitalists who fund them and need them, who are entertained by them, and amused by them, sealed in their rvs. Then there are those in between who work throughout the year and find some catharsis in this meeting place of those two strata.
Something like that.
If you live the art side of the equation all year long, burning man will not be the cathartic thing for you that it may be for others. For you, it may be just yet another place to give away some enthusiasm. enthused. en theos. on fire.
I'm thankful for plentiful, flowing water and a clean toilet seat.
I don't mind a good healthy down. I crave quiet.
I find the everyday reality of living in a city to be much more radical, really than burning man will ever be. Burning man is a festival. it is fun, it is interesting. I love the art, the imagination, the people. But a realtime city has so many more strata and classes of people. Burning man is really only one or two strata: the artists who are the outward, exuberant edge of global capital, who are free as one can be and don't care, who are generous and give of their boundless enthusiasm, and the global capitalists who fund them and need them, who are entertained by them, and amused by them, sealed in their rvs. Then there are those in between who work throughout the year and find some catharsis in this meeting place of those two strata.
Something like that.
If you live the art side of the equation all year long, burning man will not be the cathartic thing for you that it may be for others. For you, it may be just yet another place to give away some enthusiasm. enthused. en theos. on fire.
ta epi ta
Mind if I rant a little. I don't need or want you to like me at all.
If I spark a little thought or reaction then I've done my bit.
or not.
What the hell is all this talk about the real world versus burningman? Do you really believe that bm is far from the default world. The horizon is global capitalism and burning man is nothing other than global capitalism, good or ill.
Burning man is mostly made with chinese labor, and then meta-assembled by campers. Every battery used at burning man was made where?
I'm a friend of excess and I mostly like burningman. It seems to me one, good crazy example of people trying to put this excess of global capital to monstrous use. and why not? There was a felt need for this. It has come into being.
We make the wager that we are and have too much and we live from that place day in an day out. We need to give. That is our only need. Come what may.
If a depression comes, feel it. be aware. Don't fool yourself. be aware. Give to yourself the time to feel what you feel. Respect the darkness and the fire. burn brightly. Give to others the space and the time to feel what they feel, to see what they see, to think what thoughts they may.
We don't have to love each other. We can even be adversaries. We can and should acknowledge each other, however. I do this everyday. Highly recommended.
If I spark a little thought or reaction then I've done my bit.
or not.
What the hell is all this talk about the real world versus burningman? Do you really believe that bm is far from the default world. The horizon is global capitalism and burning man is nothing other than global capitalism, good or ill.
Burning man is mostly made with chinese labor, and then meta-assembled by campers. Every battery used at burning man was made where?
I'm a friend of excess and I mostly like burningman. It seems to me one, good crazy example of people trying to put this excess of global capital to monstrous use. and why not? There was a felt need for this. It has come into being.
We make the wager that we are and have too much and we live from that place day in an day out. We need to give. That is our only need. Come what may.
If a depression comes, feel it. be aware. Don't fool yourself. be aware. Give to yourself the time to feel what you feel. Respect the darkness and the fire. burn brightly. Give to others the space and the time to feel what they feel, to see what they see, to think what thoughts they may.
We don't have to love each other. We can even be adversaries. We can and should acknowledge each other, however. I do this everyday. Highly recommended.
ta epi ta
Those are some good points ubu.
However I have been sad, primarily because human memory being fallible, I feel myself losing memories of the sights and sounds and colors. I found every work or art, every smile, every friendly girl, every sunrise, so achingly beautiful, the realization some of it was fading choked me up.
The experience did pull me out of my shell, and I've been determined not to enclose myself back in it. I still smile and say hi to everyone as though I was back in Black Rock City. But I find myself wishing I was still in that magical place with all those magical people.
However I have been sad, primarily because human memory being fallible, I feel myself losing memories of the sights and sounds and colors. I found every work or art, every smile, every friendly girl, every sunrise, so achingly beautiful, the realization some of it was fading choked me up.
The experience did pull me out of my shell, and I've been determined not to enclose myself back in it. I still smile and say hi to everyone as though I was back in Black Rock City. But I find myself wishing I was still in that magical place with all those magical people.
This was my first burn, and I felt like i had more in common with this group of people than anyone else I am around in real life. I felt like the event and people is/are enlightened in a way that current society is not, and yes it was a relief to escape the bigoted neo cons and their media for one week. It was true freedom, and I've never experienced that before. Hell I didn't even know I wasnt free until this. Yeah I miss it.
Made a post on our camp's forums mentioning that I'm experiencing more post-playa depression this year than in the past two years of attendance. I'm realizing that I'm most missing the friendly faces in my camp and of strangers. I miss the spontenaity of the playa life where you can be sitting eating a pb&j one moment and the next be riding around on a bike in the middle of the playa.
-
diane o'thirst
- Posts: 2092
- Joined: Tue Sep 09, 2003 5:04 pm
- Location: Eugene, OR
- Contact:
This year was easily the best of eight Burns for me, but I'm always happy to get back to Defaultia. Showers are good, electricity on demand is very good, being able to listen to my classical music without getting it eclipsed by funk, disco or techno is <b>HEAVENLY</b>. And there is a good deal to be said about access to purring CAT Unit. Later today I'm going out to the barn to get my equine fix and goo and gah over Tagie's long hair and give him two weeks' worth of grapes and kisses.
About the time of departure, I had plenty of water but batteries were pretty much gone and so was most of the food. I do miss being able to walk around semi-clothed or nearly naked and get my stuff done, but I DO NOT miss the port-a-potties.
Basically the only things I regret about returning to Defaultia is getting needled by my apartment manager to unpack the car post-haste because it's "unsightly" (rassfrackin'...it's a loaded car, loaded cars happen, just deal, alright?!) and running out of detergent and vinegar because of all the stuff I have to wash off.
About the time of departure, I had plenty of water but batteries were pretty much gone and so was most of the food. I do miss being able to walk around semi-clothed or nearly naked and get my stuff done, but I DO NOT miss the port-a-potties.
Basically the only things I regret about returning to Defaultia is getting needled by my apartment manager to unpack the car post-haste because it's "unsightly" (rassfrackin'...it's a loaded car, loaded cars happen, just deal, alright?!) and running out of detergent and vinegar because of all the stuff I have to wash off.
[url=http://tinyurl.com/245sagf][img]http://tinyurl.com/2bbr28j/.gif[/img][/url][url=http://tinyurl.com/23753ws][img]http://tinyurl.com/2auqebj/.gif[/img][/url][url=http://tinyurl.com/m4y82q][img]http://tinyurl.com/l56rdn/.gif[/img][/url]
I did notice quite an effect on the caltrans workers, the road crews and the toll booth attendant at the bay bridge. That was the first time I have received an enthusiastic thumbs up from a tollbooth collector, and that smile, what a smile he gave me as he stuck his thumb skyward!
All the other burners had dosed that guy with smiles and exuberance.
When the infrastructure workers are affected, that is a good sign. the road crews waved back at me with smiles when I waved at them. A lady with a prothstetic leg at a gas station came up to me to talk to me about what the festival was like, and she was all smiles.
Never underestimate the power of exuberant joy and imagination.
The city of San Fran got a big influx of gratified desire.
All the other burners had dosed that guy with smiles and exuberance.
When the infrastructure workers are affected, that is a good sign. the road crews waved back at me with smiles when I waved at them. A lady with a prothstetic leg at a gas station came up to me to talk to me about what the festival was like, and she was all smiles.
Never underestimate the power of exuberant joy and imagination.
The city of San Fran got a big influx of gratified desire.
ta epi ta