Burn2 - A Second Life Burner Explains

I was lost. And confused. My desert was full of people building things. They were all very friendly and enthusiastic and busy and nothing they were doing made any sense. I found a perch where I could sit and watch while I tried to make peace with what had happened to my sanctuary.

A man appeared and gently coaxed me back down to the ground. He said his name was EmCee Widget and told me to trust him. EmCee took my hand and led me across the playa.

We arrived at an unassuming building and he motioned me to enter. Then he began to speak............

Welcome to the theme camp When Worlds Collide.....we have four experiences, the first is the black rock desert at dawn.

Consider that you drove for fifteen hours, you got your last gas 100 miles ago and you have been in a caravan of cars. They've been driving at 30 miles an hour in a 14 mile line and you are exhilarated, tired, in awe of the beauty and you gotta pee bad. Well you've been in your car.

The words are Danger Ranger's. The time is 20 years ago and you are here for the first time. The Burn has never graced this land.

Please join me. (and we moved through a magical doorway into another place)

You exit your car ..... it's a dreamscape here on the cracked alkaline surface. It smells slightly of chemicals. It is cold turning hot. You have a world of anxiety and thoughts and concerns you have ridden with and you are here on the edge.

There is a line in the sand drawn by Danger. When you cross this line everything will be different. All of what you carry can be stripped away, set aside or embraced.

Please join me.

You transition and time passes and you come back to the playa and this becomes your 20th year. The Burn is now 55,000 people ..... it is a city ..... it is a community.

Walk through please.

We stand in a universe of possiblities ..... SL and RL ..... Burning Man and Burn2. We are a Regional for Burning Man. We act and work and play like one and many of us have crossed over out of our avatars and many of us have crossed over from our Burner Selves to Avatars and the concepts and thoughts collide and combine now so that we see ..... that we are one culture.

So where does this combination lead us?

All of us come together, the real and the virtual and we will combine the playa of SL and the playa of the black rock desert and we will interact and play and celebrate as we have never done before.

We will be able to bring SL to the playa, we have the technology. We know where we are on the real playa, we do that today. We can then place the SL playa in our view and Burners can interact with each other real and virtual and this is our camp.

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I admit that I was moved. I think I'd better go check those calendars again and do some more exploring. Expect further reports!