It always surprised me that Jason loved Burning Man so much. I mean, have you seen his house? That place is spotless, organized, and uncluttered... the total opposite of Burning Man, which is a dusty, chaotic, and unforgiving place. Burning Man is the place where Jason would get dirty, dehydrated, exhausted... Burning man tickled the explorer side of him, the nonconformist in him, the soft and artistic side of him... At Burning Man, Jason belonged to a different society for a week, he left behind the norm, he did what he enjoyed doing so much - knowing different cultures. During Burning Man 2010, Jason and I were doing nothing one afternoon. Our camp mates were doing other activities elsewhere, so we decided to bike through the city and explore. We spent about four hours going through the streets, looking at art and people, contemplating and admiring the beauty all around us. It was a quiet ride. Jason and I did not have to fill each moment of silence with small talk in order to avoid awkward silence, so we just pedaled through the desert. We stopped at major art installations to take pictures. We also stopped to take pictures with interesting people. Our last stop was at the temple, which according to Burning Man organizers, is where everyone is invited to inscribe memorials upon the walls and to leave behind photos and other objects of personal significance. Through the physical inscription of memories on the Temple’s walls, and in turn through reading the inscriptions of others, participants are able to share, ritualize, and transform private grief into public expression in ways that are generally unavailable to many contemporary Americans. The temple that year looked like a wood maze, and it was created to resemble caves and canyons. We parked our bikes outside and walked through the people. We went into "caves," we witnessed religious rituals, we read testimonials written on the walls, we saw pictures of people who were no longer among us, we smiled at strangers who, like us, were pensive and emotional... Then we just sat at the temple, quiet, immersed in our personal thoughts for a while. This year it will be the turn of other very good friends to explore the Burning Man temple together, to appreciate what they are experiencing, to be thankful for their friendships, health, overcome obstacles, cure of sickness, etc. It will be the opportunity of more than 50 thousand people to read about this amazing person that Jason was. Finally, on the festival’s final night, the temple and its tokens will be offered up in flame, dust, and ashes as thousands look on in reverential silence. That will happen in 65 days from today.