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Anybody
Remembers What's Important |
This is the story about how a little
yellow truck got a kiss from the DPW.
it was thursday. i had just received a most wonderful
massage, given to me as a gift from a kind soul and fellow AEZer. i
walked back to my camp feeling the bliss of burningman and appreciation
for our collective dusty humanity. the sun was setting: it was time
for a quick shower and a change to evening clothes
a campmate greeted me with the news
that two members of the DPW had been by our camp to put in an auger stake for the village
tower. during the task, a piece of equipment they had been using came apart
and fell on my truck
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i glanced at the fender with a
flashlight, noticed a dent, but it didn't look too bad. it would have to
wait till morning. the playa was calling
the next day, sunlight revealed a
fist size dent in the front fender.
this yellow truck is no ordinary old
truck. it is a really nice little truck, given to me by my dad who
bought it new in '74. it has faithfully taken me to
burningman five times. it has a rack and overload springs. and, even
though it isn't perfect, it is in really good shape with only one other
ding. so i did feel some unhappiness about the dent
i talked with two other AEZers who had
witnessed the accident. one of them had taken a photo just before it
happened. the entire shaft tool on the front of the bobcat had
spun off and tipped over onto my truck
it had taken two people to
lift the shaft back onto the bobcat so they could finish the
task.
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later i heard that BM.org had insurance that
would cover such accidents. after a couple of days of pondering what to
do, i decided to file a report. i talked to a very nice woman at playa
info, wrote out a full page of accident details, and gave them my
contact information. then i forgot about it and went back to playing on
the playa
monday evening
i left the playa and drove back to my other home, northward into the cup
of the big dipper. the stars sparkled all around me. my AEZ solar
pathlights were alive in the back of my truck: red and yellow LEDs
ablaze like firelight. the humming of the tires on the road drummed in my ears. my head
was filled with warm thoughts. it had been a wonderful burn |
| back in the
"real" world, i suffered from playa withdrawals.
every time i got in my truck,
i glanced at the dent. i thought, "i need to get a couple
of repair estimates and contact burningman to see about their
insurance." a week went by, then two weeks. i still hadn't
got around to getting estimates. i found i was looking at the
dent with an emotion akin to nostalgia. weird...
finally, i
made myself look up a couple of body shop addresses: i drove to
one of them on my lunch hour. i got to the shop and didn't even want to get out of the truck: i realized at that point
that i really didn't *want* to file an insurance claim! laughing,
i drove back to work. i felt like a great weight had been lifted
from my heart
anybody doesn't care about the
dent! it is just a little souvenir from burningman. maybe i will
paint a little kiss on it
anybody remembered what's important:
- what's important is that it
was an accident
- what's important is that no
one got hurt
- what's important is to
remember that the very atmosphere that allows burningman to
happen means that sometimes there will be accidents
- what's important is that we
return the good feelings that burningman gives to us: what
goes around, comes around
- what's important is that
the guys from the DPW were trying to make things better:
they were there on a mission for our village
- what's important is that it
is just a little dent: the truck will make it back to burningman in
2003
- what's important is
learning that the burning world often makes more sense than
the "real" world
- what's important is that
all of us question the scripts that have been handed
to us in the "real" world: every moment of every
day we have a
chance to write our own stories
~~ thank you, DPW,
for all that you do ~~
anybody
burns home
email anybodyburns<at>hotmail.com
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