Sunday is always a work day, but I wasn’t quite ready to just jump up and get to work so I got up extra early to see the sunrise and go visit the ashes of the Man and pick up a few bits and pieces. When I got there around 6am it was mostly ashes and a few glowing coal pits here and there, with people sleeping or just laying around the middle of it because it was toasty warm in the early morning cold. I poked around a little and picked up some nails and wire and then cycled back to Pink Heart while the sun rose all orange and glorious. I still had a little time left so I grabbed a fleece blanket and sat in my favorite princess chair in the center of frontage and looked around at the beautiful camp we’d made and enjoyed our fabulous Esplanade view one more time before I had to go help take it all apart. It always makes me sad when the whole thing we have worked so hard on and anticipated all year and loved all week just vanishes into nothing again, but that’s part of the experience.
Strike went reasonably well, especially because it wasn’t deadly hot like it had been the previous year. I helped with the disassembling of the Patio, mooped, helped pack away pillows and helped to pack up the kitchen. By early evening we were mostly done, which was great. We changed out of work clothes into warm clothes and ate and then went with a group of Pinkies who were still there out to watch the Temple burn.
It was as always beautiful, reflective, solemn, and sad. People sniffled and coughed and cried and howled together like a wolf pack (and the howls traveled around the circle). The burn itself was so beautiful, especially the moment when the whole structure slumped and folded into itself and gave off twirling smoke angels. Afterwards we walked back to Pink Heart (not easy because the beacon was down, and it was hard to tell where we were) and spent some time hanging out with people who were still there.
[Report, Reflections and Robots (Burning Man 2018): Prologue and Preamble]
[Report, Reflections and Robots (Burning Man 2018): Part 1]
[Report, Reflections and Robots (Burning Man 2018): Part 2]
[Report, Reflections and Robots (Burning Man 2018): Part 3]
[Report, Reflections and Robots (Burning Man 2018): Part 4]
[Report, Reflections and Robots (Burning Man 2018): Part 5]
[Report, Reflections and Robots (Burning Man 2018): Part 6]
[Report, Reflections and Robots (Burning Man 2018): Part 8]
[Full set of Burning Man 2019 Pictures and Videos on Facebook]