The Cremation of Care ritual is over one hundred years old and is always the first order of business when these men of industry, government, and military gather each July. At sundown on the first Saturday of their encampment they enact a bizarre short scripted play (always the same) in which they burn an effigy of "Dull Care" at the bottom of a forty-foot stone owl. Their rationale is that they carry the cares of the world around on their shoulders and they need a symbolic ritual in order to put it down and enjoy their holiday. Since 1980, activists in Sonoma County have brought this to the attention of anyone who will listen and we began a new tradition with a Resurrection of Care event on the same day.