This past weekend I attended “Rabbit Soup,” a small regional Burning Man event held in the Texas hill country near Dripping Springs, Texas. Recreation Plantation, the private camp site where it is held holds a lot of memories for me. It was once the home to Burning Flipside and, before that, campouts for the Council of Magickal Arts so I’ve been attending events there for over a decade. It was wonderful to take Pet there for the first time and share an intimate, chill Burn.
It was chill both in mood and weather — the days were warm but so breezy and the nights were perfect for cuddling. We saw some real rabbits on the campground during the late nights, along with a few sexy rabbit girls of a more human variety. “Soup” campouts have been in the community for some time, but stopped after their founder died a number of years ago. Enough time has passed that the tradition was ripe for revival. There were a couple small theme camps and a lot of enjoyable conversation.
And lots of babies — our community has really been working hard to make baby Burners, and it’s wonderful to see them integrated into our community without changing the adult tone of the events. We camped near a longtime friend of mine who recently gave birth and brought her now 7-month old son along for his first camping experience. She was just as happy as ever to tease me about the sounds of spanking she heard from our tent late one night: “someone’s got a naughty girl in their tent!” she called out.
It was interesting to compare the Burn community in its simplest sense to the larger events I attend now. It reminded me that all of our infrastructure springs directly out of the radical self-reliance and the concept of the “do-ocracy” which permeates our events. Rangers are really just friends looking out for each other like we did this weekend, only with more organization. When Pet, my friend, and I walked around hugging new arrivals on Friday night, it was the same impulse that led to the creation of the Greeters.
This reminder was fresh in my mind when I attended an “All Hands” meeting for Burning Flipside on Sunday. We’ve grown so much larger since our first events, which were even smaller than Rabbit Soup, but the same impulse of community lies behind our work. The Web Content Team and the work it’s doing for burningflipside.com is getting constant accolades — I can’t attend a meeting, campout, or Church Night without hearing how awesome we are. I was also given a motto this weekend by another friend — he pointed out that the work we’re doing is Gonzo Journalism. Therefore, I decided that the Web Content Team’s new motto is “Gonzo for Flipside!”
Flipside is 6 weeks or less away. I’ve found tickets for two of my friends who needed them. Now I need to get us planning on our upcoming theme camp, Halloween Town.
