People who had never built anything in their lives, people who had no clue what a production was, had never torn down scaffolding, had never put together sound stages. I saw them doing their best to be part of our team. The one thing that was missing from all the festivals, from all the experiences I had been part of in the past five months. The team. The team was here. They were learning, it was like the first day of practice. They wanted to be part of something so bad but did not know how. They wanted to be part of something bigger than themselves. They wanted to create. They wanted to find worth. They wanted to change the world in some way and just had no fucking clue how to do it. So at some point, they decided to come to The Playa, come to Burning Man. They joined a large theme camp and helped build Black Rock City. Now they could be part of bringing joy to others and maybe find a little joy for themselves.

I watched them likes ants on the scaffolding. I watched them as they stood around having never done anything like this before, trying to look busy, trying to feel part of our team, my team.

The Man burning meant nothing, this was the climax, this was that special moment I had been hoping for. I could feel the camaraderie. I could feel everything I had been seeking for the past few months, past few years, maybe forever.
It was not perfect, it may not have even mattered, but it was honest. We were not the Lost Boys, we were the pirates trying to go back home. We had been lied to by everything we had believed in as children. We were lied to by our parents, by our religion, by our institutions. We had all been lied to by everyone and everything we trusted. So we made our own reality. Second star to the right, and straight on to morning.

-Excerpt from Life In the Festivals, A Journey Into the Perpetual Hope Machine