Restoring a 1978 Dodge Sportsman On the Way To Burning Man and Black Rock City

Exploring Literacy, Language and Communications While Bringing an Updated Outlook for the Library of Alexandria at a Historic Burning Man Event

September 9, 2023 by

Terence Latimer

Description: A personal essay and point of view describing the broad experience of acquiring information and skills related to an automotive restoration project, project management, personal development, and its overlap with a road trip to Burning Man.

A recent conversation with a friend offered the context and content to help me finalize this post

This conversation was with a new friend, and the broad strokes of our hour plus conversation included topics related to perspective, personal experience and present circumstances.

In addition to a shared appreciation for words, our subtext offered deeper levels of understanding as it relates to typical challenges associated with the human condition, namely in the form of relationship development, community feedback and individual purpose.

The next section of this post touches upon varying points of reference and opportunities to prepare you for my personal experience working to restore a 1978 Dodge Sportsman RV on my way to Burning Man.

Burning Man Isn't a Festival

Burning Man is a week-long large-scale desert event focused on "community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance" held annually in the western United States.

Influences Inspiring This Post

Word of the Week: Preparation
Reading: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance; Zen Mind, Beginners Mind; The Dharma
Music: Sundial, Noname
Watching:

Language on the Playa: Burning Man and Names

Part of Burning Mans mystique includes essential elements of the counter culture, including the language and vernacular offering various intersections of personality, experiences, and methods of expression.

The 65,000+ person annually gathering includes a diverse range of people and experiences, with broad homogenous underpinnings centered around "default world" language including "hippie," "raver," and the fun and often hilarious "weirdo."

I've personally never been big on labels, but I HAVE always been big on names. Understanding my own name, its origin story, and associations have offered deep levels of self-knowledge and literacy.

Among the labels you can expect to hear at your first Burning Man experience includes words and phrases including: "Virgin Burner," and "Welcome Home."

Your persona, and ability to express yourself on Playa, becomes the playground of both the new and experieinced "Burner," responsible in some ways, primarily through community and authentic expression, on the journey to your "Playa Name."

I’m a first time burner and decided to go All in on My First Burn

The typical Burning Man experience involves hearing about the festival, iodentifying a community, and participating by becoming involved in either an established camp, or to make your own arrangement and to camp alone.

Sometimes called a "Renegade Burn," this might involve a couple, or individual, deciding to go at Burning Man alone or in a more muted fashion.

Remembering that Burning Man becomes a city built on principles, the circular topographical view of the town can be paralleled to the faces of a clock: each intersection offering neighborhoods, camps, campers, and creative experieinces, designed to embody deeper levels of connection, conversation, growth and whatever one decides to make with the senses.

Part of my expression, including deep aspects of needing to "feel in control," included defering from the typical path to Burning Man, and "going all in," by leading a first time camp, with larger aspirations regarding a triumphant experieince cherry topped through a heaven like experieince with my 1978 Dodge Sportsman, The Chariot, Harriet. Part of this desire is around personal literacy with automobiles and autotechnology.

You see, part of Burning Man includes understanding what makes you, you. And for me, thats been around concepts for literacy. In my 2023 year of Capacity and seeking challenges, I worked to build a community of link minded campers to head with me to the Playa and Burning Man as part of a longer term desire to cure literacy.

The Inkwell, as we became known, included a group of 12, embarking together on what might be included within the archives as one of the most historic Burning Man events in the organizations XX-year history.

Also part of my long term desire to cure literacy includes concepts around financial and business literacy. Key to that are concepts related to the Digital Divide, or in others terms, "Digital Literacy."

As a result, my ambitious nature also convinced me that launching a coworking space, Black Cactus, was also a good idea, while working on my RV and leading a first time camp to burning man.

Do you see where this is going?

Currently going through a bit of an existential crisis in that I feel like everything I’ve been hoping for is right around the corner, I'm also painfully aware of my own limitations, fears, trappings, and methods of compensating for not readily having an answer available.

I’ve recognized in some ways that chaos, and theory, or whatever we mean when we discuss Chaos Theory provides opportunities for a sense of control.

By embracing what one can’t control, I'm forced inward. My mindfulness practice reminds me that when external factors, or waves, are outside of my control, stillness and silence tend to go a long way.

The dynamic nature of listening sometimes requires to do nothing but listen, including listening to silence.

My comfort place, tends to come from both a place of stillness and movement: lessons reading about systems have taught me the direct correlation between the two.

Power, I've learned, is only powerful when applied to self. Embracing challenges during moments of stillness offer mountain top experiences and lifelong fulfillment in my opinion.

Going all in to a experience then, becomes about uniting your five senses through deep sensitivity to the content taking place around you, contextualized through personal expressions of mind, body and spirit.

Wanting to Experience the Challenge of Burning Man

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Burning Man, a challenge I've been seeking for quite some time, camea s a result of listening and having conversations with friends, beginning with my brother. While younger with less consciousness, I was aware that Burning Man might be a weird festival for hippies. I had also hear varying concepts around getting dirty. It wasn't until friends in my social circle began attending, did I begin to get a better idea of what the event offered as it relates to my own participation.

My brothers friend, a graphic designer, entrepreneur and creative apparel designer Maurice, helped to provide deeper clarity on Burning Man. At a time where my musical tastes expanded beyond hip-hop, R&B, Soul, Funk, Punk and Rock, and Pop, deeper appreciation for house music and its roots in the Afro-Latin communities helped expand some of the types of parties I'd attend in Los Aneles. Downtown LA offered a playground for the uncovering of new musical tastes, particularly rhythmic drums and horns which ultimately are a focal point of my current personal musical tastes and preferences.

A friend in the Los Angeles startup scene was also paramount to my introduction to the Burning Man community. Time with with this friend was an important reminder of the importance of community, and was the beginning of my direct experience in the Burning Man community, exploring the intersection of community, friendship, culture, parties, music and artistic expression through the 10 Principles of Burning Man. Participating in Los Angeles' Burning Man scene was a stark remidner of my own lack or progress around my entrepreneurial and creative pursuits.

The 10 Principles of Burning Man, which more often or not are misconstrued, or directly understood and ridiculted, are the values which define the annual tradition of the Burning Man event, a city and experience which takes place every year. Not a festival which also has the lucky distinction of shutting down the festival period, each year tens of thousands of people gather

Challenges with Radical Self-Reliance came in the form of assuming that things were just going to work out. As the second born, I tend to exhibit signs of the younger child in the form of assuming risks, questions of freedom and aspirations inclusive of wanting to achieve more than siblings as a way to stand out. I'd argue that the family dynamics which allowed for the Tripod Unit we've had as a young provided opportunities for individuality, leadership and traits of the solitary child, expereiecinging a 6-year dichotomy with my brother. Radical self-reliance challenged ones identity around and ability and willingness to complete these challenges on my own.

Prepping for Burning Man

Learning About the Burning Man Community

Learning about the Burning Man community is something that has taken about 7 years worth of time. Although I was auxillary to the community for sometime, I never quite had the courage to get my stuff togehter and go. Basically I wasn't mentally, spiritually or emotionally prepared, and this was expressed through a lack of momentum and movement to get ready: I stayed still.

My Time in the desert, having lived in the Joshua Tree Basin community, and specifically 29 Palms, for the past 4 years, has influenced both my creative pursuits and the cognition required for what one considers to be home. Having lived in Los Angeles the majority of my life, with brief stents in New York and Texas respectivelly, I've developed an appreciation for small town life and rural living. My assumption is that my time and roots in Texas are a direct result of my capacity and capabiltiy to adjust to desert living.

As part of that, I'be become more mindful of the restorative nature and power of the desert, it was here that I learned the process of being bored, alone, uncomfortable, and with a burning desire for healing and compassionate, radical self expression and reliance. The desert is a difficult place to live, but it doesn't have to be. Here, we need each other: the perils and dangers which can't be defined in fewer words than "Desert Sh*t" has meant less stillness alone, and more movement with others. Creative expressions, fun gatherings, and opportunities to heal together: we're all out here for a reason.

The desert teaches the importance of navigating thirst and hunger, spiritual and mindful creative reckonings associated with the heavy responsibility that ones actions matter

Purple 33: A Los Angeles Area Burner Community

[DEFINE] Burner: A term for someone who participates in the burner community, which is largely comprised of people who regularly participate in fire festivals, such as Burning Man, or any of the smaller local/regional events that Burning Man has inspired around the world. The term is not derisive, but is rather a term of endearment and self-identity across the burner community.
Time spent in Los Angeles' Burning Man community was typically in the form of Purple 33, an event space and party which took place in the Venice and now, Playa Vista area of Los Angeles
After a night of eating, drinking and socializing in Venice and Santa Monica area, nights at Purple 33 involved creative artists and the like.
Through time, and relationships with members of the Burning Man community, important days, afternoons and evenings at Purple 33, or in the vicinity, both from a network and location perspective, offered a sneak peek into some the creative, weird, and funky characters which made up what I called the Burner Auxiliary community.

Lincoln Barbers: Community Building through Mens Grooming and Local Conversation Synthesis

Time in Santa Monica during this period of my life also included haircuts at Lincoln Barbers
Barbers play an important role in the form adding grease to the machine that is communication and information systems
Barbers are a forum for the free flow and exchange of ideas, conversations and reactions to current events through the lens of community building, grooming and townhall style debates reinforcing or scrutizining radical ideas as it relates to the uniquness of the male identity representing one of the many avatars each participant carries through activities related to work, relationships, personal pursuits, education and common understanding
Diego, a friend and barber, and I would have causal conversations regarding Burning Man
He described his affinity for dancing and some of the lessons learned while also hanging out in Venice, Santa Monica, and at Purple 33

Moving to Joshua Tree: Learning About Creativity

And the Power and Meaning of Words

Becoming a Writer Through the Healing Nature of the Desert

- Learning about becoming a writer was a deeply spiritual and awakening experience which took place in Joshua Tree during the Covid-19 pandemic
- There's something to be said about isolation in the desert
- embracing challenges and submitting to the heat
- Finding a challenging version peace in the evenings
- The beauty and respite the Fall, Winter and Spring have to offer
- Dealing with extremes and identifying capacity for a center
- Additional Reading: Walking the Walk So You Can Talk the Talk: Why The Pen is Mightier than the Sword and Actions Still Speak Louder Than Words

The desert offers a blank canvas for creative pursuits

- Whatever your type of canvas, the desert offers a blank space
- Which is what happens every year at burningman, the blank canvas of a new city communicating where we are in life
- This year some of that came in the form of how we respond to challenges, and the elements, as a collective

Harriet the Chariot and Sitting

- Harriet the Chariot, my 1978 Dodge Sportsman offers a unique opportunity for the repainting of a blank canvas
- Restoring this vehicle is less about the money going in versus the fun andconnection I see coming out of it
- As part of my Efficiency, Thriving and Capacity years, with a mindful outlook towards a cooperative 2024, I'm mindful this particular piece of art needs to be updated and to get on the road
- My original plan was to have it on the road and ready for Buyrning Man
- a 6-Week sprint, or just over 2 months, allowed for energizing activities which challenged my capacity to learn, to seek help and to submit based on the 10 principl;es of burning man
- Unfortunately I wasn't ablt to hiut my ghoal in time, which is always a lesson one can seek leraning opportunitiesfrom
- Comical laugther considering what my Brun woiuld have been like dealing with Harriet in a moderately improved state versus where its at now: leaving anddriving homw mihgt have been a loghistical nightmare
- Proud of making a choice, albeit conveit, that I feel ultimately benefit a largert number of people, and allowed a humbled version of myself to operate at maxiumum, cooperative efficiencty
- It's not about me: its about YOU

Reading and writing my way to the Burn

Research
- Researching what Burning Man was about
- Researching friends who had experienced Burning Man
- Researching what sort of experience Burning Man was going to be
- Researching the requirements for leading a Theme camp
Information Systems
- and the way information regarding Burning Man comes into the system
- Learning the way information regarding Burning man leaves the system
Creating Systems for Information and Communications Distribution
- Systems for Information Distribution for campers
- Systems for Communications distributors for campers
Becoming an instrument for acquireing and dissemenating information
- Acquiring information
Creating access and permissions to communicate standards
Shared knowledge and information systems
Localization of information

Getting to BM: The Journey of Creating a Path and a Vehicle

Prepping my RV, Harriet

Recognizing the importance of education, creating Capacity goals rooted in a thriving nature gave one the courage and willpower to develop a routine around transportation and understanding automotive technology
Learning, particularly through reading and writing, was an opportunity to break down a subject and to offer a unique opportunity to acquire the information most pertinent to thougtful understanding and mastery
Information Arcitecture, including understanding what a topic was, and being able to break it down into core modules where I could focus my efforts, became an important part of thesis process
As this process refines and improves, the additional focus becomes on being able to test and quiz oneself to ensure understanding and mastery of said topics
An automobile, such as HArriet, becomes about understanding the Mechanical, Electrical, Internal and Chassis systems which make up the core systems of the whole
Each system which requires a minimum amount of operational efficiency to ensure the entire system is capable of working as a whole

The Inkwell and the Importance of Self-Literacy

The process of becoming self-literate, comes in the form of desiring a mastery of communications, language and words
Becoming literate through self through a deep immersion in words, language and literacy
The ability to receive, distribute and interpret language and communications is a part of this process, and it becomes important for an individual to have systems in place to do so
Odoo is one of my favorite systems
Allows me to consolidate all the information I receive, and I get to focus on planning and organizaing everything from my contacts, to my customers to my websites to my projects

Shameka and Mo’Better Burners

This particular Bunrng Man trip began with Reading and researching information
This included working in one of the worlds most popular social media networks, Facebook and Instagram, in order to identify other burners who could help
This included Shameka Glover, of Mo'Better Burners, an incubator for first time burners

Embracing the Challenge

The Challenge of Literacy: In embracing ones purpose in helping the world through literacy, most of my desires in attending Burning Man included developing a capacity to be more self literate. In my late 30's I've begun to understand that understanding and "Knowing Thyself" is one of the most important, annual exerises you can focus on. Knowing Thyself in order to Know others helps to contextualize values, and broadly, personal definitions regarding borders and boundaries. All of us, have certain lines we will and will not cross, and this typically changes with time. The challenge, as a loner, can in the form of identifying community, a broader goal of literacy and self-literacy, offered the confidence to dream beyond production and on identifying something truly special that could challenge onese self of self
Refusing to Live in Fear: Perhaps the ego, but one refuses to live in fear. Lots of reasons before the Burn to not go included fear based reasoning based on the unknown. The known, the 10 Principles of Burning Man, seemed to me to be the perfect opportunity to check where or where not values aligned, to doublecheck on how that made me feel, and broader conversations with self regarding identifying common language which allowed for parallel definitions. The principle I had the biggest problem conceptualizing was around Radical Self-Reliance, which reflecting now has come in the form of what radical implies. I've considred myself to vary the spectrum between self-reliance and total dependence; radical self-reliance came in the form of not asking for help before I was sure I couldn't do something on my own and then choosing to do it alone anyway.
Having. a backup plan with George: The challenge of getting Harriet on the road was a challenge I looked forward to, while rooted in reality, I recognized a back up plan with my day to day car George, was going to be a requirement. While some might accuse me of not going all in, the pragmatist in me recognizes that there are elements beyond my control. Obviously the deep lesson from Burning Man has come in the form of recognizing that I can cntrol, or at least influence, a lot, when I put my mind to it. The back up plan for George included the various maintenance tasks that would ensure a safe trip to Reno and back to the Joshua Tree area. Broad lessons regarding appreciating the resources one already has and then the process of resource allocation, and monitoring, was one that won't be lost for some time. This was never really about Harriet, and has mostly been about George, my mother, my father, and developing new identities and relationships of appreciation for the alagorous figures of matter and space which have allowed me to phyiscally be here. My focus then has come in the form of mastering my time here; which was the broader of 3 lessons from Burning Man (a) My Actions Matter (b) God Has Me Here for a Reason and (3) We are All Ultimately the Same.

Odoo and Getting Organized

Complex Systems
- [Education] Simplifying Complex Systems
- Systems Thinking in Social Enterprise
Embracing a Personal Challenge
Identifying a Team
Creating Pirate Goals
/the Project Plan
Abstract Thinking
Core Modules
Project Management
Information Architecture
Working on my SCRUM Master
Getting my TOGAF
Mastering Information Systems and Data

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