Thoughts On the Ride Home

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The nights are when BM sparkles. For much of life, the reality can't match the hype. The new fall line-up is the same old crap, the burger is half as appealing as the picture, the sea monkeys look less like mermaids and mermenand more like clumps of suspended lint, the computer graphics still can't compare with the box art that tempts you to buy it. New and improved rarely is.

Nights at BM can overwhelm, confuse and cause bodily harm. Riding flat-out in the dark desert with pieces of art on the ground, moving and stationary humans wandering with dark clothes and no illumination, vehicles blinding you unexpectedly with headlights or finding yourself in the path of a motorized monster spouting noxious blasts of fire and smoke.

. . I make a habit of asking folk how they heard about BM. Two of the most interesting were these:

I read that it was the World's Most Dangerous Festival. I started hunting down tickets.
Jerry Fallwell (or the 700 Club or other group) had a report about BM and painted it as on a par with Sodom & Gomorrah. I figured if they were against it, I should see what it was about.

An OSHA inspector might have an anxiety attack at BM, but as elsewhere in life, the biggest danger is stupidity. Every year I've seen some drunk fool try to leap across a bonfire that was a bit bigger than it looked only to come up off the ground covered in ash and embers. It says on the BM ticket that attendance carries the possibility of serious injury or death. I sort of wish that the dangers at BM could be increased. We need to thin the herd. .

As for the second reason for attending BM, have no fear. The Religious Right is working hard to relieve you of any temptation that they feel you can't handle. BM must be fought because there is drugs and nudity and impure thoughts rampant in the streets. Ignore for the moment the beauty, the hospitality, the sense of community just as evident in the streets, and I'd have to ask, 'What about your town?' There are no drugs? There isn't pre- and post- marital sex on your block? No one on your block breaks a commandment? I'll start feeling a whole lot more charitable to public spirited groups after they lobby for laws that restrict what they themselves do wrong in their lives before they set the standard that others should follow. Come to BM and see for yourself. Bring an open attitude. Bring your favorite toys and wildest clothes. Bring the creativity typically pounded out in elementary school. I won't even mind if you bring a few personal bad I don't agree with.

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The nights are when BM sparkles.		For much of life, the reality can't match the hype. The new fall line-up is the same old crap, the burger is half as appealing as the picture, the sea monkeys look less like mermaids and mermenand more like clumps of suspended lint, the computer graphics still can't compare with the box art that tempts you to buy it. New and improved rarely is.
Nights at BM can overwhelm, confuse and cause bodily harm. Riding flat-out in the dark desert with pieces of art on the ground, moving and stationary humans wandering with dark clothes and no illumination, vehicles blinding you unexpectedly with headlights or finding yourself in the path of a motorized monster spouting noxious blasts of fire and smoke.
.	.	I make a habit of asking folk how they heard about BM. Two of the most interesting were these:	I read that it was the World's Most Dangerous Festival. I started hunting down tickets. Jerry Fallwell (or the 700 Club or other group) had a report about BM and painted it as on a par with Sodom & Gomorrah. I figured if they were against it, I should see what it was about.
An OSHA inspector might have an anxiety attack at BM, but as elsewhere in life, the biggest danger is stupidity. Every year I've seen some drunk fool try to leap across a bonfire that was a bit bigger than it looked only to come up off the ground covered in ash and embers. It says on the BM ticket that attendance carries the possibility of serious injury or death. I sort of wish that the dangers at BM could be increased. We need to thin the herd.			.
	As for the second reason for attending BM, have no fear. The Religious Right is working hard to relieve you of any temptation that they feel you can't handle. BM must be fought because there is drugs and nudity and impure thoughts rampant in the streets. Ignore for the moment the beauty, the hospitality, the sense of community just as evident in the streets, and I'd have to ask, 'What about your town?' There are no drugs? There isn't pre- and post- marital sex on your block? No one on your block breaks a commandment? I'll start feeling a whole lot more charitable to public spirited groups after they lobby for laws that restrict what they themselves do wrong in their lives before they set the standard that others should follow. Come to BM and see for yourself. Bring an open attitude. Bring your favorite toys and wildest clothes. Bring the creativity typically pounded out in elementary school. I won't even mind if you bring a few personal bad I don't agree with.