What's Important
Every morning I read the paper. It is a comfortable routine learned from my father, who had the Wall Street Journal delivered to the house every day. In this, he was imitating his father-in-law (Gigi’s husband, Joe) who was no doubt copying someone else. It was important to know what was going on in the world and they taught me that the WSJ was a good way to do so.
The news is “important” in the “real world” but at camp, our focus is very different. Most campers have forgotten to even wonder about the latest Covid updates or celebrity fashion trends. Our interest is in the important news of camp life and that news is ALWAYS fascinating and endlessly nuanced.
Camp forms a culture that is very engaging to our citizen girls and women. We follow the details of our celebrities (the Senior girls) with genuine interest. When they make dance moves to a song, we collectively make them our own. Taco Cat Tuesday becomes a “thing” because the counselors declared it to be so a couple of years ago. Odds and Evens are serious business, their leaders beloved by all.
So it is important for you to know that the Odd Team elected Mary Caroline Kolar and Miller Clark to be their Lieutenant and Captain. The Even Team elected Molly Morrison and Anna Coker to be their Lieutenant and Captain. The teams will meet in a joyous display of team spirit in Challenge Day tomorrow… who will win the “Bear”? Who is ahead in points at this stage of the summer? These are the subjects of our ruminations today; isn’t that great?
Camp allows big life lessons from circumstances that are safe and protected. A girl can feel the weight of leadership responsibility yet have the support to make that weight easily managed. Here we learn to take ownership of our actions, knowing that there are predictable consequences when we do things both good and bad. Here such priorities like daily devotions and DMC’s become beloved routines. They impact our lives in positive ways when we leave camp, often remembered for a lifetime.
Away from camp our sense of “important things” shifts. Sports, politics, economic trends, fashion, home decor, automotive news… all these things gradually resume their importance in my life when camp is not in session, but they are not as satisfying as the “important things” that consume my days at present. The weight of reality is greater away from camp, the obligations and consequences more significant and thus the lessons are more “costly”. It is nice to learn big lessons in a safe place like camp.
Those of you who are reading the blog but do not have campers here at present might be doing so to re-connect to those camp priorities. I encourage you to do so and to take those priorities into your neighborhoods, churches, and workplaces. The world will be a better place and you will have a Great Day!
Our weather continues the trend toward warmer weather (high today of 83) while avoiding the afternoon showers (zero percent chance of rain again today). The sounds of camp are very soothing to my ear (but would perhaps sound differently to an outsider). Screams of delight and music systems playing at full blast make for a cacophony that is pleasant to some but not all.
We will enjoy our classes, our clubs, our snacks, our meals, our EP, and our cabin tuck in’s.
- Breakfast Truck Drivers Special
- Lunch Chicken Broccoli and Rice Casserole
- Dinner PIZZA! check out the video… really an amazing thing to watch a large camp do homemade pizzas of such quality!
- EP Rotating Group Night. We divide into three groups, each getting a different EP: Fire & Water Waterpark, Pool, S’mores; Paintwar, getting filthy dirty; Castle Building Contest making a castle out of graham crackers and icing. We will do this EP a total of three times so every group does every activity (each of which will be a big hit!).
Another Great Day! Thank you for making it possible!
