I re-entered the world for a few days after having been at camp for about 2 weeks and learned some interesting and important things.
The world is loud. Cars make lots of noise and so do people. Its like a bunch of flies buzzing around your head.
People always have places to go. And when everyone is going in different directions and some of them are in a hurry it adds up to a big mess, bad attitudes and little patience.
People are fat. I’d forgotten how big and poorly kept people can get. I know its sort of normal, but I don’t like it.
Its just a bunch of loud, fat people with no patience running around everywhere trying to do stuff that never subtracts from the total amount to be done.
My dad is working a lot these days. He said that business is sort of bad so they have to hustle to keep things going. But it is obvious that if business were better the work load wouldn’t decrease.
I know the strength of camp is in the community. But there is more to it than that.
There is nature: clean air, shade trees and mountain views.. The absence of cars eliminates noise pollution and forces you to be around trees, dirt, and birds. All that stuff is comforting.
And there is no sense of hurry and desperation….no rush. Your own stress is stressful, but other people’s stress affects you too, like second hand smoke.
And how nice it is to walk! The only place most people walk is to their car. Walking promotes talking to other people you pass along the way. Walking is exercise. It raises your heart rate and makes you feel better. Walking can make you tired. Driving just makes you restless.
Everyone is all about diversity these days. Its like some kind of mantra: Embrace Diversity. I say embrace it if you like, but never forget that there is strength in togetherness. Connectedness is achieved by common threads and shared values, not diversity. There must be common ground. At camp it is all common ground, literally.
There is a sense of place that speaks to you directly: This is good. That other stuff is distracting you.
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