Life

8/31/6
Three years ago I returned to Burning Man for the fourth time.
I wasn't planning to go. But come Monday, when the gates of Burning Man were open, I heard the call so loudly. I HAD to return. It wasn't a want. It was a need. That day I looked for tickets. The next day I told my clients I was taking the week off. The day after we were on the road.
The year before had been amazing for me. I had made several big wishes, which were promptly granted.
Wish #1: To travel internationally and finally get a stamp in my passport. Four months later I rang in the New Year in Tokyo.
Wish #2: To find true, solid, strong love. Three and a half months later, my husband-to-be and I crossed paths again. This time, love ensued.
Wish #3: To finally forgive my father. 11 months later, I flew to…

8/31/6
1. The name giraffe is derived from the Arab word "Xirapha," which means "the one who walks very fast."
2. The giraffe is a unique creature, because despite the length of its neck, it has the same number of cervical vertebrae that a human has.
3. A newborn giraffe measures about 6 feet.
4. A giraffe is one of the animals who is born with a horn.
5. The tongue of an adult giraffe measures 27".
6. Giraffes sleep for no more than 5 to 30 minutes in 24 hours.
7. A large male giraffe can eat up to 100 pounds of food in a single day.
8. A giraffe's heart is 24 pounds in weight and 2 feet in length.
9. A giraffe’s age can be calculated from its spots, as the darker the spots, the older the giraffe.
10. Giraffes are silent animals, but, they are certainly not mute. Sounds like the bleating of calves, and…

9/1/6
"People are like stained - glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within." - Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

On our drive to the playa I was telling Raol, an experienced burner, about my philosophy on Burning Man. Shortly summarized, at Burning Man, wishes come true.
He said that what he would wish for was impossible. He wanted his wife to come, his friends Gomez & Sharon to come, and he wanted to find this sweet girl named Hannah that he and Paula had met on their first trek to the burn.
Paula didn't come; she was resolved. But Gomez and Sharon changed their minds last minute and found us (in 40,000 people, that's a feat) without trouble. And Hannah was the one friend that my sister had plans to meet up with.
At Burning Man, wishes *do* come true.

"We are like the mechanism of a watch: each part is essential."
- Nathan Meyer Rothschild
Each of the pulleys you see there was put into motion by people pushing turnstyles on the ground. As I took this shot they were in the process of closing the Machine down. I watched it burn later that day but didn't take any pictures of it.

Burning Man 2005
"A fantasy of mine is to be tempted by the devil with a miraculous machine, a machine that could be hooked up to my brain and instantly produce finished art from the images in my mind. I'm sure it's the devil who'd have such a device, because it would devour the artistic soul, or half of it anyway."
- Chris Van Allsburg

“What if a demon were to creep after you one night, in your loneliest loneliness, and say, 'This life which you live must be lived by you once again and innumerable times more; and every pain and joy and thought and sigh must come again to you, all in the same sequence. The eternal hourglass will again and again be turned and you with it, dust of the dust!' Would you throw yourself down and gnash your teeth and curse that demon? Or would you answer, 'Never have I heard anything more divine'?”
- Friedrich Nietzsche

Burning Man 2005
THE UNKNOWN CIVILIAN
The International War Veterans' Poetry Archive
In the United States, France, and Russia
lay the Tombs of the Unknown Soldiers;
Beautiful Memorials, decorated with flowers,
in honor of the men and soldiers,
who fought so bravely,
for God, and for their country.
They have bled and they have died,
in a history of wars and battles
fought by solders - fought by men.
But today,
where are the battles and the wars
where only men and soldiers die?
And where, I wonder,
are the graves and temples
for the Unknown Civilian?
Where is the Memorial to the
little girl who lost both her arms
because of a land mine -
years and years after the war had ended?
And where, I wonder,
are the Graves for the civilians
massacred - murdered
by the men and soldiers
who fought so bravely
for God and for their country?
Where are the graves,
where are the temples,
for the Unknown Child,
and the Unknown Mother?
These landscapes of war -
this blackened earth
of ashes and…

THURSDAY - Burning Man 2005
Art Ride with Saam - Shooting Blind
I spent a good deal of time at this camp. Little did I know at the time that it was a foreshadowing of things to come. Less than four months later I went to a temple in Kyoto that boasts over 1,000 torii gates. It seems like more than just a coincidence to me.

THURSDAY - Burning Man 2005
Art Ride with Saam - Shooting Blind
The Ladder
by Mark Griffen and Lloyd Aspinwall
The Ladder is a statement of Ascendancy, representing the movement of consciousness from one plane to another.
Made of welded aluminum and steel cables, it reaches a height of 108 feet or 11 stories, straight up.
The Ladder, which could be seen from all points on the playa, was climbed by 400 people during the event.