"Was he serious?" I asked. "I don't know. I couldn't tell," she said, "but I knew you would appreciate it."
Just to be on the safe side. I have dutifully posted this information on the camp's Information Board next to the main parking lot as well as in the pool area. Now you know.
During the summers here at Camp Maranatha, where I live and work, every week begins with an invasion and ends with a hasty evacuation. The week begins with 200+ campers pouring into the grounds like an occupying force, full of energy and enthusiasm, and the end of the week finds them dragging their belongings through the dust toward an idling bus- a disorganised rabble. It's almost as if the end of the week suprises them when it comes. Counselors and staff shout instructions, encouraging stragglers to hurry up, there is one last flurry of chaotic activity and noise then all is quiet. They have evacuated ahead of the next group. Me and the rest of the staff move through the empty camp like ghosts, like villagers left behind in a bombed out village, and then the rumble and creak of tanks enter from the other side of the town. It's another week. Another invasion.
My Brother and summer staff alumni extraordinaire, Job Tate, sent the entire staff here at Camp Maranatha (That's 21 people!) aviator sunglasses. Why? Just because he's awesome. That's why. It was a huge hit, and couldn't have come at a better time as we had just completed a long week with over two-hundred campers here on the grounds.
Here are some of the staff sporting their new shades.
Job, you should have seen their faces. It was an awesome gift! It will go down in the annals of summer staff lore to be sure as one of the coolest events of the 2010 summer.
I enjoyed a crackling fire in my office this morning.
During one of those first Christmas seasons that Sarah and I spent as man and wife I was telling Sarah that I wished we had a fireplace in our apartment. So many of my childhood Christmas memories had taken place around a fireplace- plus I would have loved watching a fire through the long Vermont winter. She surprised me with this VHS cassette which is a half hour long and depicts a merry, crackling fire. I recently dug it out, dusted it off, and took it down to my office which it has singlehandedly transformed into a much cozier place. Several times a day I reach over, press play, and voila! my office is totally transformed.
This one attaches directly onto the back of a pickup truck, which struck me as brilliant! This tent's owner told me that it cost in the neighborhood of $150.00. I know it's rude to ask a person how much something costs, but sometimes my curiosity gets the better of me. It looks like a latter day covered wagon doesn't it?
This one had a dog house attached.
I really should have taken a video tour of this tent, because my one still-shot fails to do it justice. It had little rooms and stuff jutting off of it all around. It looked like it was probably the most challenging tent to set up if only for the number of poles and supports it used. If you had to guess, what is the purpose of that little bit that juts out from the tent? Storage, maybe.
I liked the open breezey design of this one.
The classic dome is evocative of the wigwams of old. I like them even though they are kind of an uninspired choice. It's classic! It's basically a wigwam, and that's cool in my book.
I thought this one was kind of cool. It kind of had a long-house feel to it, and the little part that juts out of the middle was interesting. I think that must be for storage.
I liked this one because the sides didn't slope inward dramatically. It looked like you could pretty well stand upright even on the edges of the tent. Plus there is something to be said for the big spacious enterior.
Servant's quarters?
Screened in front porch.
I found this tent very appealing for some reason. It was a nice big tent, roomy inside and a front door that doesn't ask you to look undignified entering and exiting, but I think I mostly just dig the colors. It's a good looking tent, right?
I thought this tent kind of looked like the mouth of a large-mouth bass coming up out of the water to swallow a fly on the surface.
Classy.
Does it or does it not look exactly like a knight's helmet?
This may have been my favorite of all the tents I saw. Tall, breezey and spacious. It's a winner. Love the colors.
This tent belonged to the warmest family at Hurkey Creek if not in the entire world. When I asked if I could photograph their tent they immediately descended on me and invited me over for dinner. They were like the golden retrievers of the human race.
The owner of this tent informed me that he had only used it once previously, ten years ago, and offered to sell it to me for fifty dollars. Perhaps more interesting than the tents were the tent's owners. They were a real slice of Americana, and I enjoyed talking with them all very much.
This one had kind of a quansut (sp?) hut thing going on.
Nice. This was really just an awesome tent. I love that big boxy look. Comfortable.
This cocoon was spun by a larval camper and in time, I was told by a park ranger, a fully mature camper will emerge. A mysterious metamorphosis was taking place inside the funky confines of this tent.
Boring. Why did I photograph this tent? I dunno.
This was the Campbell place- a classic dome design with a wind-break like the sheltering wings of a mother hen.
The Bayer place had a spacious interior and a screened in porch.
The White's place is also very spacious inside but it has built in corners and a front room, which makes it feel as though it isn't just all common space. 
I recently watched a show called Iconcoclasts featuring Sean Penn and John Krakauer who collaborated on a film based on Krakauer's best-selling book, "Into the Wild." The premise of the show is described thusly; "In this original series, leading innovators and creative visionaries meet to discuss their passions and creative processes, providing an inside glimpse into the inspiration and motivation that made these iconoclasts who they are today." I watched the show because, as I said, I have always been fascinated by Penn and I wanted to understand what made him tick.
I had read the book "Into the Wild" also, and, like millions of others "Alexander Supertramp" hit a nerve with me. Although, after watching the show, I am certain that I ultimately arrive at different conclusions than Penn and Krakauer regarding his life and ethos. I will leave my opinions on Christopher McCandless for another post however.
The biggest surprise I got from watching the show was that Penn is really kind of adrift. I am aware that I open myself up to a charge of having an exagerated opinion of myself by tearing another man down like that, but there was no cohesive belief system, and no central ethos. Frankly there was no rhyme or reason to what he does. He just shoots from the hip on every issue, following his gut, his instincts, and then justifies himself with the vaguest of language or simply refuses to justify himself at all. Perhaps he hopes that simply by saying things with authority and passion nobody will notice how confused he is, how contradictory his beliefs, how simple and vapid his reasoning. He was so facile, and I realized with some shame, that I had been duped all these years into thinking that he was profound perhaps in a way that I didn't understand or appreciate fully. It turns out that he isn't profound at all, but merely cryptic, and I now believe that he is a mystery even to himself- adrift, yes, passionately adrift.
So why does he do the things he does? Did I answer for myself the question of what makes him tick? I think so. I had mistakenly believed that he was motivated and governed by philosophy and world-view because that is what motivates me, but I now believe that he is looking and flailing about for something worthy of his passion, worthy of investment. The closest he could come in the show was, "Experiencing life to the fullest." In my opinion he is looking for truth, but he look and sounds lost. He is lost, and every boy scout knows that when you get lost in the woods, just sit down and wait for the search party. Mr. Penn, just sit down.
