As some people familiar with Burning Man may have heard, some jerk committed arson the Man on the Monday before the event. I won’t rant and rave about it here. But I will say that, as a member of the small crew who actually build the Man, I was quite disappointed. :(

Here’s a shot of me as I stand in front of the first Man, the day after he was burnt down.



But, as always in the insanely creative and driven people of my community, we weren’t going to let a little arson get us down.

People from across the playa immediate came to us aking what they could do to help. And help they did! Working with several dozen incredibly talented and dedicated volunteers (the vast majority from the DPW), we were able to rebuild a new Man on site from scratch. Not only that, but what typically takes 2-3 weeks to accomplish, we were able to achieve in less than 3 days. WOW.

I felt a greater connection to the Man burn than in any of my previous years. I have no doubt that this was the result of all the blood, sweat and tears we poured into building The Man (twice).

What a fantastic experience. :)