magnus greel wrote:Alright, what with all the interference with my eye and brain functioning, I could very well have missed something in the previous posts, but has anyone actually said what might actually be religious about the experience of BM?
The actual burn can be viewed as a rite in which we are reminded of the fragility and impermenance of everything. This is more spiritural than religious--a religion would most likely make up some sort of permanence if you only perform the proper rites, bribe the right priests ect. The curve of creation and destruction of the city reinforces the sence of living in the moment. YMMV. I carry the death of my younger sister 9 years ago next month, and I think that shapes a lot of my world view. I think that the happy playa theme song is Brave Combo's "Nothing is Permanent"
[Rain falls and turns to mud and then it dries and blows away
Grass grows in yards of green and then it gets to tall and causes worry
...
Buildings of any sort are just lean-tos and that's all]
and the unhappy same is the Klezmatics/Tony Kushner song about the Statue of Liberty.
[By the time we're done with dancing
Elsewhere, darling, you'll be glancing, and the night's a river torrent tearing us apart.
.....
Don't call out and cling in terror, darling that's a fatal error, clinging to a somebody you thought you knew was yours
Dispossesion by attrition is the permanant condition that this wretched modern world endures
.....
Someday you may be a refugee
A refugee, running from the wars, escaping from the fire bombs they hurl]
And much more of great wisdom. The playa love poem is Andrew Marvell's, of course.
