Dear Liza,
Saturday is a big day at SOAK, the day of the Major Structure burn. I have showed you this structure, that thing that looks like a wooden light house. There are stairs inside, and I actually went up!
The views were wide and high, but the gusting winds encouraged me to head on down.
By the evening, I had figured out that a million pictures weren’t going to capture my experience of SOAK, and I took fewer and fewer. But that evening, with everyone in costume and sitting in The High Meadow waiting for the Burn, I asked Jasper, Kestrel, and their Troupe to sit for a portrait.
Some pictures are worth posing for!
The Burn was delayed several times, as the wind kept gusting, creating a danger of the fire spreading. Firefighters soaked the ground between the structure and the fire line, and people were stationed on the hill to look for sparks.
I was waved down to a seat in the front by a ranger named Leeway, who (like lots of other folks here) is a friend of Katie’s. The fire dancers came out and put on a thrilling, if slightly scary, show.
And then, at 11:28 p.m., the thermite was set off and the Burn began.
You could tell which job people had by which way they were looking. The firefighters never took their eyes off the tower, to make sure the fire didn’t get loose into the area. The Rangers never took their eyes off the crowd, to make sure no one acted in ways that were unsafe around fire.
The tower burned for about a half hour, letting the chilly crowd get warm. We were all warming ourselves in the same fire, becoming, in a way, members of the same tribe.
This felt like all of the Principles coming into play at the same time.
*Radical Self-Reliance, because everything had been brought up by the burners.
*Gifting and Communal Effort from the folks who built and monitored the fire for the rest of us.
*Immediacy, in our total absorption in the moments of the Burn.
*Decommodification, because it was offered to all of us for free. Also, no one was advertising anything with it.
*Consent, because there were those who chose not to be at the Burn, and everyone was free to experience it at their own comfort level.
*Radical Inclusion and Participation, because there was plenty of room for the almost 3,000 people to see. Also, all of our presence made up the experience.
*Radical Self-Expression, in the creation and then destruction of one’s creation.
*Civic Responsibility, in the action as of fire fighters, Rangers, and the whole crowd, keeping everyone safe. Also, the correct local fire permits and such were given, so the Burn is also good citizens to the “outside”.
I will tell you about the last Principle tomorrow, as we move toward out last day at SOAK 2024.
Love,
Grandma Judy
Dear Liza 