Timber Ridge, Whos, and Wisconsin

7-31-09

Sorry I haven't posted. Granted, I don't know if anyone is reading this, but whatever. An apology is still necessary. So I apologize.

Anyway, these last three weeks have been pretty busy. Due to circumstances I won't relate (not my business, not yours, either), I transformed from general staff to administration staff in the course of about fifteen minutes. They put me in charge of the craft department at Timber Ridge. Sort of scary, especially when I was quite happy and content being a general staff member and the ceramics aide who was able to refer people to the director when they were displeased. (Now if they're displeased with me, they have to take it up with Pastor Charlie, I suppose.) I had to learn how to use the kilns during Junior II Camp, but I've got the hang of it. Nothing's exploded, anyway. (Some things have fallen apart, but that wasn't my fault.) And I have all sorts of ideas and plans and such for next summer--like cleaning and organizing our supply closet, or going through all of the ceramic molds, just to know what we have.

I never really wanted the role (or perhaps I'm just shying away from the added responsibility and adultness). But I've really enjoyed doing it--it's pretty much the same job I had before, with a good amount of new duties added to it. But I've had fun. Stressful fun, but fun nonetheless. So when I'm getting verbal hints that the powers that be want me to do this again next year, I have to seriously consider it. And consider it I shall, since Pastor Charlie doesn't like commitments to be made in August after an exhausting but productive summer. We'll talk in January (although I probably already know what my answer is, and if you're a careful and intuitive reader, you might know already, too).

We had our last staff party last night (euphemized as the "post-campfire staff meeting"), and we had pesto pizza and other delicious goodies. We also watched bits and pieces of the staff DVD and Horton Hears a Who. I am seriously considering writing an essay about that movie. Why? Because it's totally a story about faith, and about Christianity. For those of you who don't know the story, Horton is an odd elephant who, one day, hears a noise coming from this tiny speck that he's caught on a clover. In that speck live a city of Whos (on a side note, there are a lot of Whos all over the place in Dr. Seuss; they live everywhere), run by a Mayor. Horton and the Mayor begin a conversation, and Horton takes it upon himself to place the speck-city somewhere safe so that the city won't be destroyed. But the others in the jungle of Nool (where Horton lives) do not believe that there can be people that tiny, or in something smaller than themselves. But Horton believes, and continues to believe despite the others' efforts to stop him or make him say he was lying. Down in Whoville, the Mayor has difficulty getting everyone to believe that he has been talking to an "invisible" elephant in the sky. The Whos think he's crazy, and they have difficulty believing in something bigger than themselves. People think Christians are crazy to believe in something that's bigger than themselves, something that they can't see, hear, or touch. Yet we should be like Horton and the Mayor, clinging to what we believe, no matter what, because we know it's true. I'm sure it's not a perfect analogy, but the concepts are there. I really enjoyed that movie.

On Monday I head to Wisconsin with most of the rest of the staff--to work at the camporee, and then after those two weeks, it's off to Southern and back to school. Where has this summer gone?

More later.