“And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you.”

Ezekiel 36:26

I’d like to share another Burning Man story with you.  Burning Man did not take place in the desert this year, but virtually through zoom calls.  Burning Man also took place on a site where you could make a virtual avatar of yourself.  I am not a gamer, but it was fun to make a little character of myself and then to see hundreds of other avatars of other people out in the virtual desert.  When your avatar gets close to another avatar, you can actually speak to the person through your computer.  As a result, I was literally meeting new people from all around the world.  It was quite remarkable.  

One night, I decided to go into this avatar world on the night that we were virtually burning the Temple.  When we are out in the desert, this is the place where people pin pictures of their loved ones who have died, or list their griefs that they want to let go of, or bring their deep pain that they are having a hard time letting go.  You have to understand that when we are in the desert, 80,000 people come together on Saturday night to celebrate the burning of the “The Man”.  It’s loud. There’s lots of cheering.  There’s lots of whooping and hollering and it’s a party.  The next day when we burn the Temple, 80,000 people come together and it is dead silence.  No one says a word.  If you hear anything, it might be of people quietly sobbing.  The Temple is a holy space and a holy place for people so I decided to check it out right before the virtual burn.  I could hear a woman’s voice coming out of an avatar, gathering people together explaining the significance of the Temple.  She asked everyone to think about what they wanted to burn in the Temple that night.  And then one by one, she opened the mic for each avatar who wanted to share.  It was way more powerful than I ever could have dreamt.  People started sharing really deep things and because we had the anonymity of being able to hide behind our avatars, people were able to share deep, authentic pains. Here’s an important factor in the avatar world.  If you like something that someone is saying, you can hit a number key on your keyboard which will create all of these floating hearts coming out of your avatar for everyone to see.  For example, one woman shared how she has been suffering from anxiety and depression and how the pandemic has been really hard on her.  Suddenly, all of these hearts came floating out from all of these other avatars who were listening and holding space.  Another woman shared how she had been diagnosed with a terminal illness just two weeks ago.  All of these hearts came floating out from all of these other avatars who were listening and holding space.  Another man shared how his teenage daughter had died suddenly three weeks before and he sobbed because he missed her so much.  And all of these hearts came floating out from all of these other avatars who were listening and holding space.  It was crazy powerful.  Even though these were just avatars, behind each avatar is a real person listening and holding space for someone sharing their pain.  I had no idea that something like this could be so powerful.  I also have a feeling that it was more powerful because people could share so deeply and still keep a sense of anonymity.  Even though we are in this pandemic, and we are frustrated that we cannot be with one another, the virtual world still shows us that we can be connected and that we are all longing to be in community.