Best Gift Received

[Angry Butterfly]

Yeah, this is going to sound materialistic, but I got a beautiful handmade hat from a woman named lydia, she makes Lydias Lids, and I had seen her hats online, being a huge hat person, and was giving out her seconds as gifts, I had not been able to bring very many clothes, and felt underdressed all week until I recived this beautiful hat that matched the top I had on perfectly, it even had a stash pocket, I didnt take it off till I got home.

[webbery]

After the Space Cowboys set early Saturday morning, these guys showed up and handed out fresh squeezed OJ. Nectar!

[girlie]

typical example of a series of gifts at this years burn...

After excellent post-burn sex with my honey i fell asleep early Saturday night. My best sleep on the playa this year. Woke up at 8, threw on some shoes and went out on a nice walk. Couple hours later i bumped into a good friend who was still up from the night before. She was on her way to prepare breakfast for a bunch of our friends and asked me to join her.

While she started preparing the grub i walked across the street to Foot in the Bucket camp to say hey to the peeps there and see if i could bum some hand cream for my jacked up hands. Sat my ass down and received an excellent foot rub from misha and some balm for my hands. Expressed my undying gratitude, walked back to Sin's camp and ate... get this... fucking Chilean Sea Bass with cilantro and ginger/soy. Brilliant morning. Big thanks to everyone involved.

[Last Real Burner]

mr smith

[symbolsimon]

I stayed over til Tuesday, and while I was packing containers and bags of STUFF I never even opened, some folks who had been camped near me , but whom I didn't notice until 75% had left, started playing some upbeat, light-hearted Cajun music. It changed my whole attitude in the time it takes to recite the entire Cajun alphabet; IE. I still had to load all that crap into my truck, but I'll be goddamned if those angels hadn't turned my frown upside down.

I sand blast art and calligraphy from ancient cultures into stone, and I had gotten some prisms at an indusrtrial salvage place and made about twenty to give away. this case had gotten buried in the pile of really imortant stuff I had to yank out of the truck so I could set my tent up in a windstorm my first night on the Playa. Not to worry. The gift thread is still alive and well. I brought the case over to them and let them each pick one and told them it was an award for playing the best music-to-pack-a-truck-by. The guy, Kenny, said, "Aw man, I just packed all my stuff away or I'd give you a little something." The he had an Idea. Reached back into his laundry bag, pulled out a t-shirt and handed it to me. It had the burning man logo 2003 on the back. He'd been one of the riggers who set up th big tent at center camp. On the front , in LARGE letters was
I'M
WITH
STUPID and an arrow pointing straight down to my STUPID. It's a classic piece, and it was the last of many kindhearted exchanges I was blessed with that week. I had one prism left with the BM logo on it, and when I pulled into the first rest stop in California, because I REALLY had to take a rest, and left it on the hood of a playa-dusted, strange bike totin' burner's vehicle. Gifting has always come easy to me, but I came away from Burning Man way so aware that the gifts were physical reminders of a very personal connection that was made. There weren't two like-minded people there. But I was profoundly moved to realize that we had supported each other as unique individuals, and we were IN ALIGNMENT .
Well, I gotta poop.
Love to all.
Peace,
Symbolsimon/Jim Strand/Joey Bag o'Walnuts/Hugh Jorgan/Paddy o'Furniture

[PurplMyst]

I have a tie between 2:

First was the most delicious watermellon Otter Pop ever. Received sometime Sunday morning while stumbling home hot, dusty, and parched.

Second was this wonderful white fluffy fuzzy scarf. Received from a pseudo camp buddy whom I lost to the dark of the Playa on Sunday.

[BlueBirdPoof]

This year was my first year at BM. I didn't know much about it before I went, I was mainly there to volunteer my time as a firefighter and EMT. I was completely overwhelmed by the outpouring of kind feeling that we received from burners as we went about our daily business - each time somebody waved, yelled, or stopped our fire truck to chat with us, it felt like a gift. The folks of BRC are really something special.

Tardis
As one of your camp mates, I have to say that the whole group of you were an amazing gift in your own right. There was that epic wait for your caravan after you got delayed in Winnemucca--that was almost a legendary experience right there, and there's just something that amazes me and cracks me up about fire fighters.

(I hope I didn't post this months ago and forget it.)

[robotland]

After wandering the deep Playa all day, my baked and parched Kamp Kalamazoo buds and I were dragging back to Hushville when we were offered icy Guinness cans in the nick of time by our friendly neighbors with the awesome Chipmunk Quadbike.....always has been a fave beverage, but I've never had one since that tasted that good......

[I am the River you saw Ye]

The best gift I got this year was an altered perception

[Rian Jackson]

Probably getting to play fiddle for an ash spreading.

And getting my soul back (which then was sold to satan and promptly given to the post man from SF, who i still can't find.)

[forest]

Just when the desert seemed to be getting the best of me, there was a camp making snow cones that were refreshing and DELICIOUS.

Heh... that was probably my camp, Necronomicone. The theme went over so well that it looks like we'll be doing it again in 2004. Come find us!

[que.f.o.]

I've received many cherished gifts in the last 4 years, some tangible, some not. My second year, 2001, cruising the playa by myself after the Burn, a celestial vision appeared from the darkness. A gorgous, young, very naked, women floated up to me. She asked how my burn had gone, how me week had been. After hearing of my times, she gave me a warm, genuine hug and wished me a wonderful life. She just faded into the darkness as I gazed after her. A true vision of Burning love.

[Apollonaris Zeus]

Someone make a bit of the black rock into a necklace- just one of my favorites!


A II Z