Event Organizers Keep the Etiquette in Sweat Equity
By Chuck Moran
August 25th, 2018
Deck, Dock, & Bridge
A dock is basically a deck in water. I’d never built a deck, or anything on the water. But we decided to do it. A bridge is like a deck, right? Just with a big hole underneath. And a deck, well that’s just a bunch of boards, if you think about it right. Right?
I first met Mackenzie at a retreat at her house in the winter, where we talked about art and politics and the world and where we were in it and what we could be or do or couldn’t. It was quite nice and dinner was lovely. In the afternoon Saturday, she led us for a walk around the endless woodland property, and I was moved. This place isn’t just a strange abandoned fishing spot or logging camp; it’s a clearing carved into nature where we humans can flourish and play. It’s private land, not far from my homeland Oakland, that welcomes variety, reverie, and fantasy. It’s the big chunk of country where we should be building weird wooden dragons over a beer, where we should be idling in the shade while a warm breeze passes by, and where we should be taking a break on a bench.
More commonly, the spaces I have access to are usually overrun with human negligence and litter, dominated by unrelenting profit-driven forces of investor confidence, policed to allow only the most idiot-proof varieties of fun, or all three. Where there have been exceptions, life has been interesting! And Mendocino Magic is one of those spaces.
It was late May, when we came to build the dock. And mid August when we came back to build the bridge. We had plans to rent the whole property out for Labor Day weekend and throw a campout party to help ease us away from our very deep, but decreasingly rewarding, relationships with Burning Man. Mackenzie has a deal she offers some people where you can put in work to reduce your fees, and it turns out we kinda love working. Well, when it’s the right kind of work, it’s really just so much fun.