✨BURNING MAN PRINCIPLE #3: GIFTING/PRESENCE✨

There is no money spent once on the Playa. There are no price tags nor portals for plastic swipes. Everything you see is given away for free. It is a central principle that you arrive with gifts in hand. Be it a class or workshop, clothes, drinks, booty shorts, showers, or an excess of fruits and vegetables: people gift everything under the sun, tangible and intangible. I had an experience this year where I helped some virgin burners build their hex-a-yurt. Afterwards, one came over with some kind of necklace he wanted to give me. He shrugged and said: "I heard there's this thing about gifting. Here, thanks for your help," he said, as he handed the necklace to me. (As the political economist inside of me tilted her head back and shrieked), I calmly handed it back to him and said: "Thank you for the gesture, but that's not how gifting works. It is not a barter system, where you need to pay me for help." It is about giving to someone, who did not earn or deserve it in any way - other than being another human searching for meaning out on the Playa. Gifting is about surprising people with what they never thought they'd get, just when they needed it most. French Toast at 5am in Deep Playa, random used life-changing books (my gifts last year), or the best naked dance party foam-down daily from 1-4. A large part of the Burning Man culture is the transformation of transaction. In the "Default World", we are constantly trying to buy and sell ourselves and (to) one another. Constantly transacting through work relationships, loans or even personal friendships. You give me this and I'll give you that... we weigh and compare and withhold value and worth. Most of our waking hours are a business deal. True presence is often only reserved for family holidays and the like. Yet, at Burning Man, a culture completely lacking the use of money and lacking any sense of payment, we embrace the understanding that: the only thing we transact upon is connection. (Our presence is truly the greatest present we could ever give.) 📷@Alexandermilovlove