When The Desert Becomes The World
In mid-February of this year, I had returned to NYC from my honeymoon and I began to notice that the spread of COVID-19 was arriving in NYC sooner than expected. As someone who has been in tech for many years, I understand the concept of network effects and exponential growth quite intimately, and it was evident to me that this was going to have impact in a big way. My intuition immediately kicked in.
I began to buy the essential supplies that my family and I would need in the case of a city-wide shutdown. At the time even my wife thought it was a bit premature -- but once the prep began to take its course it became evident that we were taking the right steps to keep our family safe. Amazon was starting to run out of cleaning supplies, water was being limited to 1-2 gallons per order, and let’s not even talk about the toilet paper shortage.
In the middle of preparing the supplies, it dawned on me that the steps I was taking felt very calm and familiar. But from where?
I thought back to a moment where I found myself in the middle of the Nevada desert with limited amounts of resources, with 10 gallons of water to be rationed over 10 days, and in a place that was way beyond my comfort zone.
The sun. The dust. The heat.
It finally hit me. The familiarity of organizing spurred the realization that I’ve actually prepared for a similar yet completely different situation. It was the echoes of burning man.
Before we begin, for those who have not attended, Burning Man is an annual, nine-day gathering in the desert that includes artistic performances, installations, and music — but don't call it a festival. Burning Man is not a festival. Burning Man is a community. A temporary city.
The event is held at a temporary metropolis called Black Rock City in the remote Black Rock Desert — called "the playa" — in Nevada.
It's art. It's raw. It’s real, challenging, messy, and inexplicably beautiful.
It’s easy to love life out at Burning Man.
It’s something that’s not easy to document, nor is it meant to be. It’s something that can only be explained by being lived.
As of the writing of this article, Burning Man 2020 is the first time in the event’s history when the event will NOT be taking place on the playa.
Over the last 5 years, I’ve been able to attend Burning Man 3 times. It’s a life-altering experience for many reasons. At the playa, I’ve been able to tap into a spiritual channel that has led me to some profound epiphanies in my life. The environment of being in a constant state of play, discomfort, and open to receiving whatever may come our way has created a depth in my friendships with those who I’ve been lucky to share these experiences with. The most important one to date: I proposed to my wife at Burning Man surrounded by love and community.
Proposing to Lindsey at Burning Man 2019
It feels like every time I go to burning man, my roots grow deeper and stronger in self, love, service, and community.
Now, there is one more reason I appreciate Burning Man— by taking part in the wonderful chaos that is BM I found myself implementing all of the lessons, experiences, and knowledge from the playa to the real world or as us Burners would like to call it, the default world. Personally, I’ve been one of the very lucky people to manage the ebbs and flows of the COVID-19 outbreak calmly.
Disclaimer: Please note that my intention with this post is to share similarities of events that required self-organization for a common cause calling for immediate adaptation. I don’t want to de-emphasize the importance of practicing physical distancing and mask wearing every day to flatten the curve. Stopping the spread of the virus is the number one priority for the health of the world. We especially need to help our front line heroes, the medical professionals of this country, as much as possible. The economic consequences of this pandemic are still yet to be truly felt and seen. These pillars are meant to be an example of a tried and tested social construct that can help us get through the current crises -- only in addition to the basic health and safety suggestions of doctors worldwide.
The 10 Original Burning Man Principles
If we are dealing with patterns of uncertainty, let’s lean on practices that have experience and patterns that have been designed for chaos, uncertainty in extreme environments. We can learn more than a thing or two from the practitioners who have managed product shortages, communications challenges, supply limitations, and building and taking down a city of 80,000 people in the middle of a desert in about 60 days. As Burning Man withdrawals hit this year, I asked myself, how can we bring Burning Man into our everyday life?
Here is how I have found the Burning Man Guiding Principles to be relevant during the COVID-19 Outbreak.
Radical Inclusion
As a human race we are experiencing this together. From China to Italy to the US, this virus is affecting us all. This problem goes beyond borders; this is a humanity challenge and it involves everyone. Through this all, I saw how quickly people started to leverage the internet and digital products to create moments of inclusion from Zoom Chats to Instagram Live. People were welcoming others into their space to make them feel included.
Gifting
This year, the world changed. For the foreseeable future, we’ll be discussing events/timelines as pre-COVID and post-COVID. The economic impact of the virus has only begun. It’s important to take into consideration your friends and family who need help. A lot of people will be financially hit, and if you are able, you can offer folks in your local community help with:
Financial support
Emotional support
Professional opportunities
Millions of people in our country can see, share, speak, and collaborate together from the comfort of their own homes. Likewise, many health and wellness businesses have been able to convert their operations to host “classes” virtually. And these folks are getting creative. Yogis are using Instagram Live to host yoga classes. Trainers are sharing some of their best workouts (Look at Joe Holder, my favorite health and wellness IG, OchoSystem example). Coaches and therapists are making themselves freely available to chat with people who need an ear (Andrew Horn, a life coach, hosted weekly Junto men's group chat via zoom), and friends and strangers alike are connecting with each other.
Decommodification
The decommodification is important at the playa as to not promote a specific brand during the burn. In the real world, I am looking at decommodification through the lens of not hoarding materials. As a guiding principle, it’s important to share resources with as many as possible. To take into consideration folks who are at risk and need materials as well. Have enough for yourself but don’t hoard.
Radical Self-reliance
Take care of yourself first and foremost. By taking care of yourself you reduce the burden on others to help you. By design, because you have taken care of your needs, you are now free to help others with your time and resources. This period has welcomed many into an introspective journey of ourselves. Bringing us the realizations of what is truly important in our lives: Love, Service, Family, and Community.
Radical Self-expression
Your emotions are valid, and it’s important to let yourself feel the full range that you are experiencing. Express yourself through your art, communications, social platforms, and journal—> don’t suppress anything. Speak your truth as you would on the playa.
The internet is especially beneficial for those who are looking to express themselves, those who wish to manage large networks of loose acquaintances, and those who wish to absorb lots of information at phenomenally fast rates. The pandemic has helped usher in the digital economy faster than anyone anticipated. We have seen 10 years of digitalization occur in a matter of months. Leverage the tools available to express yourself fully across the world.
Communal Effort
We are all in this together. If we put together a communal effort we are likely to see the results of our efforts. Check-in on your friends, make time for loved ones and take the necessary precautions to keep yourself and others safe. C.S. Lewis wrote, “Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art, like the universe itself… It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things which give value to survival.”
Every day, find a way to be more useful. This takes brains as well as spirit, insight and cunning and self-awareness, as well as good motivation. Nothing is more important than making yourself the most useful version of yourself that is possible – with the help of the universe. You are most useful when you enjoy what you are doing.
Civic Responsibility
It is our duty as citizens, brothers, and neighbors to do our part as we build the new version of our world. JFK has a great quote that I hold dear during these times, “where there is a crisis, there is opportunity."
Hold elected officials accountable. REGISTER TO VOTE for the upcoming election. It doesn’t matter what party you align with if you are a citizen of the United States, register and VOTE. Make sure to do this promptly especially with everything that is going on with the USPS.
Lead by example. Simple enough, yet easier said than done. If there is something you wish to see happen in the world, take action, and make it happen.
Leaving No Trace
On the playa, this means leaving no trash or Matter of out place (MOOP) behind. This principle calls us to leave the desert as we found it, free of debris and anything else we brought in for the journey; all must be packed out. When we are undergoing our most severe struggles, we need to reflect on the world we currently occupy and accurately place ourselves within it more than ever. It has been interesting to notice, as the world paused in lockdowns, moments where nature has had a chance to breathe and regrow. As a collective let us remember to build a better future for ourselves, our communities, and the environment.
Participation
During COVID we have all been asked to do our part. At the beginning of COVID when things were the most uncertain and bleak, we came together in solidarity to flatten the curve. How we participate evolved through the quarantine itself: from staying home to volunteering to wearing masks to protesting--participation was out in full force. As the original BM principle stated, “transformative change, whether in the individual or in society, can occur only through the medium of deeply personal participation.” However unique the engagement was to the individual during COVID, people participated.
Immediacy
Doing things with urgency and immediacy has been a pillar of the pandemic. But as quickly as our world changed, and as fast our response has needed to be, let’s not forget our longest nights are nothing compared to how short life is. Whatever we were putting off spiritually, emotionally, physically, socially, etc. pre-COVID quarantine called us forward to address it, in the now. It is more important than ever to take the time to be present -- to appreciate our loved ones and our life situations in the moment, and to sidestep the tendency to focus on the past or worry about the future. Only the now is real.
