Highlights from the first official week of camp at Silver Lake 2004:
1. No drownings. As the waterfront director, this is quite important.
2. Friday's weather: because it was a bit cold, we had a total of ten swimmers on the beach over the course of two hours. This meant I relaxed on the pontoon boat with Matt (Evans, yes, he's lifeguarding at camp this summer), Jonah (our fourth lifeguard, a nineteen year old who declares that he has never done drugs yet "is always stoned"), and Krista (my sister) as she read to us two chapters from Calvino's If on a Winter's Night a Traveler (Nathan Miller's words echoed in my head "this is what ministry is all about").
3. Hmmm....I seem to be having trouble finding a third highlight, but my neurotic writing habits compel me to write my thoughts in groups of three for the sake of organization. Well...here's one more: Last night at Kareoke night I witnessed my older brother and Tyler (my sister's long-term Canadian boyfriend) belt out an original song "Billy Corgan's Goat" to the tune of "Bill Grogan's Goat." Let's just say there were many confused children after such an escapade: "But...but I thought the song went like this..." "Never mind little boy, Bryan and Tyler are just crazy."
And now for the lowlights:
1. I really only have one. In trying to help a frantic and angered mom work out her difficulties with her son (this was a family camp), she angrily informed me: "You'll never understand, so just back off. You come here from your perfect life and think you understand me, but you don't know anything about what life is really like." She continued to tell me that my beach was unsafe and that my lifeguards are incompetent (none of which, I assure you , is true). I literally was blinking back tears as I tried to calm her and escort her off of the beach, but I didn't hear anything further of what she had to say because I couldn't shake her words: "You'll never understand." I've dedicated five years working with the Salvation Army specifically to trying to understand and to help people such as her, but is she right? Because of my upbringing (no broken home, no poverty, etc.) am I useless to those who have dealt with such hardships? I insist on telling myself that this is not true, but her words still haunt me. And so this is where the beauty of a community blog comes in handy...does anyone have any thoughts on this? Is there a line where sympathy and heartfelt compassion is not good enough and only true empathetic understanding from a similar background can succeed in helping others? Feel free to post your thoughts.
1. No drownings. As the waterfront director, this is quite important.
2. Friday's weather: because it was a bit cold, we had a total of ten swimmers on the beach over the course of two hours. This meant I relaxed on the pontoon boat with Matt (Evans, yes, he's lifeguarding at camp this summer), Jonah (our fourth lifeguard, a nineteen year old who declares that he has never done drugs yet "is always stoned"), and Krista (my sister) as she read to us two chapters from Calvino's If on a Winter's Night a Traveler (Nathan Miller's words echoed in my head "this is what ministry is all about").
3. Hmmm....I seem to be having trouble finding a third highlight, but my neurotic writing habits compel me to write my thoughts in groups of three for the sake of organization. Well...here's one more: Last night at Kareoke night I witnessed my older brother and Tyler (my sister's long-term Canadian boyfriend) belt out an original song "Billy Corgan's Goat" to the tune of "Bill Grogan's Goat." Let's just say there were many confused children after such an escapade: "But...but I thought the song went like this..." "Never mind little boy, Bryan and Tyler are just crazy."
And now for the lowlights:
1. I really only have one. In trying to help a frantic and angered mom work out her difficulties with her son (this was a family camp), she angrily informed me: "You'll never understand, so just back off. You come here from your perfect life and think you understand me, but you don't know anything about what life is really like." She continued to tell me that my beach was unsafe and that my lifeguards are incompetent (none of which, I assure you , is true). I literally was blinking back tears as I tried to calm her and escort her off of the beach, but I didn't hear anything further of what she had to say because I couldn't shake her words: "You'll never understand." I've dedicated five years working with the Salvation Army specifically to trying to understand and to help people such as her, but is she right? Because of my upbringing (no broken home, no poverty, etc.) am I useless to those who have dealt with such hardships? I insist on telling myself that this is not true, but her words still haunt me. And so this is where the beauty of a community blog comes in handy...does anyone have any thoughts on this? Is there a line where sympathy and heartfelt compassion is not good enough and only true empathetic understanding from a similar background can succeed in helping others? Feel free to post your thoughts.
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