Learning Man

More than 10 years ago I sat with a high school senior who wanted to do something “big” for learning. He wanted to bring people together in a shared space where they could focus on exchanging ideas and mastering new skills. I suggested he start a conference that riffed on Burning Man and call it Learning Man.

He didn’t, but someone else finally did. I’m not surprised. We all have a need to connect. Connecting is especially appealing and meaningful when we can explore our authentic selves by stepping away from our routinized roles and the expectations, habits, and even self-talk that constrain our thoughts and behaviors.

I have attended and presented at conferences for decades, but last week I did something new. I attended the original Burning Man event in the northern Nevada desert. (Here in my mid-fifties I’m still looking for opportunities to challenge my ways of thinking. “Learning Man, party of one, your table is ready.”)

When I first started teaching, I considered myself an embedded anthropologist. I documented classroom experiences with the intent of sharing. In the process, I realized how difficult it was to fully participate and be present in the moment while simultaneously curating for an audience that wasn’t there.

Many people have posted pictures from Burning Man and written about their experiences. Every account says at least as much about the curator as it does about the thing itself. As my friend Chris likes to say, “The playa (the ancient lakebed where the event takes place) provides.” Of course, that depends on what a person needs and/or seeks.

I needed to spend time with friends and experience new perspectives on resilience and creativity. I went to Burning Man with an open mind, 10 gallons of water, and very few expectations. And the playa did indeed provide. Here is some of what I found:

A fully operational, temporary city supported by communications, waste management, law enforcement, and other logistics that runs so efficiently and effectively that the United States Marine Corps has sent personnel to study it and write white papers about it. During Burning Man the Playa is home to Nevada’s second-busiest airport. Some burners are pilots who bring their planes and gift flights. On my first morning I hitched a ride with a physician from Portland and took this picture of Black Rock City:

My friends camped beyond the perimeter. The neighborhood suited me perfectly – I like a good party, but I also like my home to be a sanctuary.

Everywhere else around Black Rock City, the energy, music, creativity, humor, and artwork was off the charts. Attractions ranged from yoga classes and talks about the future of technology to ¡El Pulpo Magnífico!, a three-story mechanical octopus that pulsed fireballs in time with fire dancers, two other “mutant” fire-breathing vehicles, and a nearby massive sound/video system. Large static installations dotted the deep playa.

One piece in particular got my attention, partly because it snuck up on me during an afternoon dust storm. “How are you?” we so often say, without really caring about the answer.

As I got closer and the dust cleared, I realized that I was looking at a collage of bullet-riddled signs that had been collected from Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. I stood in front of it for about 10 minutes and then began touching the signs. One of the artists came up to me and we chatted. The green panels, he told me, were once the gates to Ukrainians’ homes.

The next day, after the dust cleared, I visited the Man himself.

But what really got me was the temple. My friend Lisa called it “a place for love found and lost.” Many people wrote remembrances of loved ones, or posted pictures. As soon as I walked in I felt overcome by emotion.

Like everything else at Burning man, the temple is intentional, it is designed with care and expertise – and it is temporary. Those beautiful hands that formed the gateway to the temple went up in flames with the rest of it on Sunday evening.

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Here is a taste of what I’m reading, watching, and thinking about.

What I’m Watching –

Jeff Goldblum has played the same smart, insecure, amorally selfish character in many movies, and his new Netflix show Kaos has been panned by most reviewers, but when I got home from Burning Man all I wanted was to clean up my stuff, get my house back in order, and chill in front of a show that touches on the stories we tell our neurotic selves to feel better about events and emotions we don’t understand. The most valuable message in the show that Variety called a “meandering mythological bore” may be to warn voters against supporting pathological would-be rulers who dismiss and even despise the people they want to rule.

What I’m Reading –

My journal from last week. Burning Man made an impression, but so did the road, and the intermittent long-distance calls with my wife, and the parking lot FaceTime with my daughter. One lasting memory is my swim in Donner Lake the morning I drove up to Black Rock City. The water temperature was in the low 60s, but the air temperature was in the low 30s. So even though the water was colder than brisk, it was warmer than the air, which made it inviting. And the difference in temperatures created a thick, low fog that limited visibility to about 30 feet – until I put on my goggles and started swimming, and then I could see clearly underwater. Everything was the opposite of normal. It was a great way to challenge my senses, open my mind, and invigorate my body as I started a new adventure.

I’d also forgotten the gas station attendant I found on the floor behind the counter, playing with his dog.