I've spent the last couple of days volunteering again at the Neighborhood Center, the Camden non-profit that gives the homeless a daily lunch and provides child care and an after-school safe-place for teens. I basically do odd jobs to help out, and I also use my junk-business contacts to find stuff they need from time to time. It's a great deal more satisfying than I ever imagined it would be when I stumbled on the place while looking to occupy myself last Thanksgiving. They're almost embarrassingly appreciative. I suppose it's tough for them in this poor economy.
Some of you may know I've been exploring joining the community of individuals who every year go into the Nevada wastes and create Burning Man City. I believe my efforts for the Neighborhood Center mesh well with at least some of the 10 Principles of Burning Man:
Radical Inclusion
Anyone may be a part of Burning Man. We welcome and respect the stranger. No prerequisites exist for participation in our community.
Gifting
Burning Man is devoted to acts of gift giving. The value of a gift is unconditional. Gifting does not contemplate a return or an exchange for something of equal value.
Decommodification
In order to preserve the spirit of gifting, our community seeks to create social environments that are unmediated by commercial sponsorships, transactions, or advertising. We stand ready to protect our culture from such exploitation. We resist the substitution of consumption for participatory experience.
Radical Self-reliance
Burning Man encourages the individual to discover, exercise and rely on his or her inner resources.
Radical Self-expression
Radical self-expression arises from the unique gifts of the individual. No one other than the individual or a collaborating group can determine its content. It is offered as a gift to others. In this spirit, the giver should respect the rights and liberties of the recipient.
Communal Effort
Our community values creative cooperation and collaboration. We strive to produce, promote and protect social networks, public spaces, works of art, and methods of communication that support such interaction.
Civic Responsibility
We value civil society. Community members who organize events should assume responsibility for public welfare and endeavor to communicate civic responsibilities to participants. They must also assume responsibility for conducting events in accordance with local, state and federal laws.
Leaving No Trace
Our community respects the environment. We are committed to leaving no physical trace of our activities wherever we gather. We clean up after ourselves and endeavor, whenever possible, to leave such places in a better state than when we found them.
Participation
Our community is committed to a radically participatory ethic. We believe that transformative change, whether in the individual or in society, can occur only through the medium of deeply personal participation. We achieve being through doing. Everyone is invited to work. Everyone is invited to play. We make the world real through actions that open the heart.
Immediacy
Immediate experience is, in many ways, the most important touchstone of value in our culture. We seek to overcome barriers that stand between us and a recognition of our inner selves, the reality of those around us, participation in society, and contact with a natural world exceeding human powers. No idea can substitute for this experience.
I should say that I attended a meet-up of some of the NJ Burners Sunday, and was delighted to be very warmly received. I also learned that there are regional Burning Man events, and will probably attend one of those before committing to the big trip. But one of the first things to come out of my attendance is that I've finally joined Facebook, since that's where the Burners communicate.
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