Avatar and the principles
The Burning Man principles are... fucking beautiful. Whether or not they are fulfilled at Alchemy (my local burn), the mere attempt is enough to make me yearn for being there.
The Burning Man principles list
The Alchemy version of the same 10 principles
I'm going to talk about the ones that most resonate with me.
Radical Inclusion
We welcome and respect the stranger. It doesn't matter if I'm cool enough, or hippie enough, or interesting enough... etc, I'm allowed there. In Avatar: the last airbender (or Legend of Aang, depending on your country), Aang constantly displayed this principle, trying to include people in his games, in his fun, in his everything. He also displayed it (combined with Communal Involvement) when he tried to get people that disliked each other to be good neighbors. Part of why I love that show so much is that I want to live in a world with people like Aang. A world with this as a core value, I hope.
Radical Self-Expression
Guild Wars 2 lets me change my clothing color and appearance at whim. It's... pretty much the best feature ever. I often spend the first hour or so of crafty parties prettying up my character, and it feels like real crafting.
Hell, lemme talk about crafty parties. Sometimes, I feel like I'm just crafting to craft, and it's not really registering. Sometimes, normally with violin or a completely new craft, I feel like I'm really pouring my soul into a craft, and I fucking love that feeling. Any community that has pour your soul into things as a core value is a good community. And I love that it's exactly as free form as our crafty parties are. I wanted to run Mage Ascension at Alchemy this year, and I feel that that would have been very much an expression of Radical Self-Expression (pun not intended) (really I promise).
wrists hurt. Maybe I'll finish this later?
The Burning Man principles list
The Alchemy version of the same 10 principles
I'm going to talk about the ones that most resonate with me.
Radical Inclusion
We welcome and respect the stranger. It doesn't matter if I'm cool enough, or hippie enough, or interesting enough... etc, I'm allowed there. In Avatar: the last airbender (or Legend of Aang, depending on your country), Aang constantly displayed this principle, trying to include people in his games, in his fun, in his everything. He also displayed it (combined with Communal Involvement) when he tried to get people that disliked each other to be good neighbors. Part of why I love that show so much is that I want to live in a world with people like Aang. A world with this as a core value, I hope.
Radical Self-Expression
Guild Wars 2 lets me change my clothing color and appearance at whim. It's... pretty much the best feature ever. I often spend the first hour or so of crafty parties prettying up my character, and it feels like real crafting.
Hell, lemme talk about crafty parties. Sometimes, I feel like I'm just crafting to craft, and it's not really registering. Sometimes, normally with violin or a completely new craft, I feel like I'm really pouring my soul into a craft, and I fucking love that feeling. Any community that has pour your soul into things as a core value is a good community. And I love that it's exactly as free form as our crafty parties are. I wanted to run Mage Ascension at Alchemy this year, and I feel that that would have been very much an expression of Radical Self-Expression (pun not intended) (really I promise).
wrists hurt. Maybe I'll finish this later?