As Burning Man winds down and our streets fill with muddy vehicles, art cars on trailers, and people wearing everything from fur coats to… not much at all, our town will take a breath.
Yes, it’s that week. Traffic gets weird, coffee shops get crowded, and someone might ask you where to buy glitter or goat milk soap at 7 am, and it’s easy to get annoyed. But this year, we’ll try something different by leading with kindness. We’ll let them go ahead in line this time. Waving to them into traffic, we’ll smile, even if they’re blocking the gas pump while tying a mattress to the roof.
Remember that this is temporary. Actually, we probably seem just as odd to them. I’m sure they question how anyone could live here year-round without Wi-Fi made from solar-powered crystal pyramids. To them, it’s a puzzlement.
We’ll do our best to find humor in the inconvenience. After all, how often do you get to see a man in a tutu politely buying brake fluid?
It’s not every week that one survives 50 mph winds blowing clouds of dust, a torrential downpour, choking smoke from a raging wildfire, an electrocution with life flight involved, and a cold, dead body in a pool of blood. That’s a lot to experience in seven days.
These folks are tired, dusty, and probably still processing whatever happened out there on the playa. We’ll send them off with love until next year, while our little town will be the calm in their reentry storm. Maybe we could all throw in a collective prayer that they find a real shower soon.
Kindness and patience cost nothing, while sending ripples of goodness far beyond this moment in time.
So let’s show them how good it feels to come back to the “default world.” Be the peace, the grace, and the kindly neighbor they’ll never forget.
With that, here’s a small prayer as they pass through:
May we slow our pace as the world rushes by.
Soften our hearts, even when dust clouds our view.
As we embrace the strange,
Let us temper our impatience with understanding.
Grant us tolerance for others,
And let kindness be the gift we offer freely this very day. Amen
