Kitchen News

We’ve two new chefs, Chef Chris and Chef Esaie. Only way to say this: these guys can sling it. Kate and I have always thought camp runs on its stomach (and a watch) and Chef Chris, Chef E and their team have kept everyone happy and full. Even our long-time Kitchen Manager Yanira has been impressed. High praise, indeed.

At breakfast today, we had 60% of our summer staff already with us. For the past week, they’ve been busting it alongside our DHs and PHs swinging weed-eaters, laying down paint and sod and picking up sticks and limbs and logs. Between (good natured) World Cup arguments, learning camp songs and traditions and getting to know one another, we’ve gotten a lot done.

By the end of dinner, we had 95% of team on camp. This is a HIGH energy group with more returners than we’ve ever enjoyed. Time to roll!

Speaking of which, Kate and I have great news.

Weequahic News

After being partners and part-owners in camp for many years, we completed our full purchase of Weequahic in May. We’ve loved working with our partners and will continue to be close. (They are all coming to Sydney and CK3’s wedding in August.) And, it was time to make Weequahic a completely family-run operation.

What will change?

Beside our young Kelly men becoming more involved and, with Luke heading to college, Kate and I spending more time in PA… nothing.

The values of Gratitude, Attitude and Courage have never been more important. Finding, recruiting, training and leading staff remains paramount. Home visits, Kate leading Nominations, the quest for continual improvement, great traditions we’ve started or kept going all remain the same.

If nothing else, it’s motivated us to do even more for our campers and staff and this great camp the Lustig family founded in 1953.

We are so happy to be fully started on Summer 2026. We’ve got two great weeks of Staff Orientation in front of us. After that, we can’t wait to get the kids here! Time for SUMMER!

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And, with that ‘right of fun’, comes some responsibilities.

Responsibilities at Camp

Just like us adults, campers have responsibilities, too. They are certainly more simple than the tax code, though: no swimming without a lifeguard, boys and girls stay out of the opposite gender’s bunk, follow the ‘banned items’ rule, do your chores and be kind to others.

The first three are pretty easy to delineate. These are ‘if/then’ statements. You either left your cell phone at home or you brought it to camp. Easy decision.

Those last two responsibilities – chores and kindness – those are a little harder to enforce. But camp, just like society at large, does better when all the participants practice what an old English judge called ‘obedience to the unenforceable.’

Chores

The following is by no means and exhaustive list of chores performed at camp but it’s certainly a good start:

• Make your bed every morning. 
• Put away your dirty clothes.
• Clear your plate and cutlery and trash in the Dining Hall at every meal… and help clean the table
• Brushing teeth, washing hair (with actual shampoo!)
• Assist with other bunk chores like sweeping or being the clean-up DJ or taking out the (small) trash bin or checking the drying lines, etc.

Why do all this? For a number of reasons. But the main reason is explained beautifully by Michael Korda:

Chores don’t steal childhood. They teach life. They teach gratitude… It’s about love disguised as responsibility. In the final analysis, the one quality that all successful people have is the ability to take on responsibility.

Done right, chores build community. They make our place tidy and clean and more enjoyable. They help keep us physically safe and emotionally calm. We become more prepared for a brighter future. Let’s move to the last of the ‘unenforceables.’

Be Kind

It’s a choice – a set of demonstrable behaviors performed towards others… and yourself! Sometimes, being kind is helping someone up. Other times, being kind is passing along a challenging truth.

Now, we can’t make someone be kind. Each of us has to choose how we act towards one another and ourselves. We can set up consequences for certain actions – being mean, bullying, etc., sure. However, we cannot reach into a person’s mind and heart and drive them around like a tank.

What we can do isshow a whole bunch of great examples of kindness and patience (our staff and older campers) and inspire to live and act more kind. We can also have our counselors ‘nominate’ campers they saw doing kind and good things at camp at the Flag each night – a long tradition at Weequahic.

The power of examples is an amazing thing.

Do Your Chores and Be Kind

Can you have a ton of fun at camp without these two responsibilities being achieved with a level of consistency and effort? Sure can! (It just won’t be at Weequahic.)

Like many things in life that provide outsized benefits – eat your fruits and veggies, move your body, be grateful – these are simple ideas. That doesn’t mean they are always easy. But, like anything else, the more we practice….

Have a great week. Can’t wait to get everyone to camp soon!

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If you are like me, it’s probably not often or, more likely – it’s never.

So, why do I bring this up? Well… I’m typing this not long after a take-off from Newark on a flight home to Georgia. I don’t know if the pilot wanted to show off or we had incoming traffic or what but she moved us around a bunch and… it was so much fun! (My seatmate was less enthused. She’s ok now – I’m sure her nails will grow back.)

Looking out the window, I saw the NYC skyline, Lady Liberty, the bay, the low clouds all while swooping – literally – like one of those little starlings that dart around. And then it hit me – I’m flying. I’m literally flying.

Ok… ok – I get it. I can feel you thinking, “Yeah, Cole. That’s what happens when you get on a plane. You fly.” Yep – it’s palpable. I get it.

Let me tell you why I’m thinking about this a lot lately. (And, it’s not just because camp starts in seven weeks.)

Ice Age

Here is an important thing to remember: you, me and everyone else on this beautiful blue and green orb are descendants of the humans who survived the last Ice Age.

While the movies made the term popular, the actual event was… well, let’s just say it was ‘challenging.’ How much so?

It is thought that very, very few humans made it through that experience. To provide some perspective, it’s thought the people in Europe would fill just one SEC football stadium. It was a rough time for us… and we made it through!

And now, just 11,000 years later, we are flying and flushing toilets and exploring space and going to camp and having full meals delivered to our door and talking with grandparents across the country and….Phew. We are the descendants of some pretty tough people.

History and Gratitude

The more I read and listen to history, the more grateful I feel for our current times.

Are there things to improve upon right now? HECK YEAH. But we aren’t (literally) hunting our dinner. We aren’t talking about how much closer that 100’ tall glacier is getting to our cave/home. Saber-tooth tigers aren’t roaming the land looking for these not-very-hairy-no-claws-no-sharp-teeth things (read: us) to snack upon.

I’ve just finished listening to a biography on Napolean. Malaria killed enormous parts of his armies. The communication lags led to enormous advantages and disadvantages. There were actual serfs and lords and women couldn’t vote or be educated.

That was not that long ago – a mere 200 years. In context of the age of the earth, it’s not even a whisper of an eye movement, a thought.

Wow in the Every Day

Campers. Staff members. Anyone who is reading this…. Camp is a:

Complete. And. Total. GIFT.

When we read just a little bit of history and think about going to camp… well, it’s eye-opening. To take a few weeks and connect and play and learn in all the right ways? We aren’t working or trying survive. We are living.

Should we feel bad that we get to enjoy this gift? HECK NO. This is a gift for which we should be immeasurably grateful. It should make us better humans. We should use this gift to make friends from (literally) around the world, to expand our awareness and empathy, to deepen our resolve to be grateful, to choose how we respond, to build our courage in order to make the little spot on this world in which we live BETTER when we go back to our other home.

So, as I fly over the mountains the last Ice Age created, I leave you with this: come to camp prepared to make it awesome. We are going to zig and zag, do things we don’t normally get to enjoy… and remain aware of the gift that we get to enjoy. We get to do all this… together.

So good. Can’t wait. See you soon.  

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We really enjoyed Project Hail Mary last weekend. It was my second viewing. (Yes, yes – I’m a total nerd.)

You would think the movie was all about adventure and the solution to a huge problem. And, on the surface, it is. But the movie – and the great book – is all about one of our core values:

Courage

Don’t worry – I’m not spoiling anything. And the movie isn’t even about ‘just’ courage. It’s actually about finding the reason to be courageous. It also shows off at least one of courage’s two close cousins.

In my first viewing, I heard a line originally attributed to Lao Tzu. The second time, I really listened to it. Basically, one of the heroes states:

“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.”

A mother will step between her child and an angry, threatening animal. A firefighter will enter a building to save those inside. These actions are not done just to be courageous. Rather, they are motivated by a higher purpose, love or calling. Courage happens because of the decisions made even before the situation.

But that’s not always enough. To truly live a life filled with courage, you need one of it’s great cousins:

A Champion

You also need to have someone(s) who spur you along, who believe in your abilities, even when you don’t yourself.  

In Dune, young Paul Atrides had his mother and father. He also had Duncan Idaho and Gurney Haleck. Fierce love. Preparation. Devotion to what he could become. (Though, in a touching moment, Paul’s father tells him the only thing he truly needs of him: to be his son.)

Yes, to fulfill find the heights of your courage, it’s incredibly helpful to have some champions, some people who believe in you more than you (currently) believe in yourself.

At camp, you’ve got a lot of champions – your counselors, your DH, your indefatigable Camp Mom Judy. (Look it up – it’s a good word and describes CMJ to a ‘T.’) Who else? Oh, yeah – me.

In Project Hail Mary, the ‘hero’ is introduced to a very strange ‘champion’ who not only believes in him but also shares the other cousin of courage with the hero:

Curiosity

Wait… what? Yes, curiosity is connected very clearly with courage. How? Think about it this way:

Every major invention or discovery required someone(s) to move against the grain, again the standard ideas. These were people who explored ideas, who pushed the boundaries of known thought and pushed our worlds past what we originally thought possible.

The not-too-ancients thought the earth was flat, that we were the center of the universe, that washing your hands before surgery was a bad idea, or the color of your skin or gender changed your value.

It took people of curiosity to question these perceived truths. They then practiced courage to chart new paths forward, those that opened everyone else’s eyes to the truth: the earth is (basically) round, we aren’t the center, hygiene is a good thing, all of us – ALL – are worthy of love and respect.

Camp is the Laboratory

You, my young friends, will need courage to do something new, to go past your self-set limits. It’ll be helpful to have champions. (You’ll have a lot.) It’ll also be helpful for you to be curious of the adventure ahead – who could you meet, what could you do?

There is no safer space to feel unsafe, to expand your comfort zone, to see that of which you are capable. Camp is the perfect place to practice courage and it’s cousins. Can’t wait to get started.

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It’s natural for us humans to strive, to reach for things higher than our current situation in life. I did when I was your age. Still do… just for (very) different things.

(I don’t believe many middle and high schoolers are praying for a safe summer and for their children to become good men. If you are… well, we should talk.)

Having goals are good. Something to aim at is important. We all should strive to become better versions of ourselves each and every day.

Here are two questions: at what are you striving? And, what are you missing in the process?

The Little Moments…

This morning, I put a new razor blade on my razor. (Again… you’ll get there.) The difference was enormous – no discomfort. Just smooth sailing and a much better shaving experience.

For some reason, I stopped and thought ‘Man – that was great’ and smiled.

Then I thought… why don’t I think that more often about a lot of things? And, for the next hour or two, I did.

A long part of the road from our house to the airport was super smooth. The fact that I could listen to a podcast out of my phone struck me as close to magic. The gentleman driving our parking shuttle at the airport was kind and thoughtful, especially towards Kate. A baby being held in front of me in the TSA line gave me the biggest smile you’ve ever seen….

Now… how many times have I missed these little moments? How many times have I been so busy with other things on my mind or rushing to the next ‘goal completion’ or just not present enough to recognize and enjoy them.

Millions of times. And we all do it. Head phones in. Head in the calendar. Eyes on the screen…. Hm.

But it’s the recognition of these little things that lead to a…

Big Life

My grandmothers grew up with pretty much nothing in a material sense. While they lived within a few hours of the ocean, they didn’t see it until late in life. They raised their own food, sewed their clothing. The Great Depression was on… and they didn’t even realize it.

When I asked Munner what she thought was the greatest invention in her lifetime – refrigeration, vaccines, rockets, tv, etc. – she answered immediately: air-conditioning. Growing up without in the Deep South sets a different perspective.

But yet they had big lives.

Big families. Sunday dinners at which both friends and families sat together. Card games that would go on for hours, punctuated with laughter, jeers and more. They had deep faiths, strong bonds with their neighbors, and were concerned about their community.

They didn’t ‘finish’ rich in terms of money or accolades. But, they were deeply loved and gave that love unselfishly and unreservedly to those around them.

Near the end of their time with us, I got to hold Ginny’s hand during a hard moment at Two Lights. Munner invited me for a glass of sweet tea and a pimento cheese sandwich on a Tuesday.

I’m happy to have those memories. They are more than worth the two hours in the car, missing a round of golf, playing a video game or whatever else I was doing as a young man.

A Mother’s Advice

I was reminded recently of a quote I love:

“If you want to change the world, go home and love your family.” – Mother Teresa of Calcutta

With all the marvels of today, it’s easy for us to strive for bigger and ‘better’ things. However, it’s actually more important to do and appreciate the little things.

Loving on your (sometimes annoying) little or big sibling. Cleaning up the table for your parents who’ve dealt with today more than you can realize right now. Rubbing your partner’s feet. Caring for the pet. Calling your grand parent out of the blue, just to say ‘hello.’

These things… these little moments are those that will change the world.

How? The same way the oceans were formed…. One drop at a time.

Have a good weekend. Can’t wait to see you at camp.

PS – How does this relate to camp? Well… just about every moment at camp is a little one. And, without the distraction of school, after school activities, your phone, your games, etc… you just get to be where you are.

At camp, we can truly be present. And enjoy that for what it is: A gift!

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Even as ‘individuals’, though we very rarely do anything truly on our own, we can add great beauty into the world. Think of Mother Teresa, Aristotle, Van Gogh and Hokusai.

We are also capable of a lot of darkness. Pick up any history book and it’ll be happy to tell you about all the bad in the past.

But here is the thing: the history books rarely tell the story of the good nearly as much as they do the story of the bad.

Seeing Clearly

The other day, I read a quote I can’t get out of my head:

If you only see the bad, you aren’t seeing clearly.

Just like the history books, we humans want to focus on ‘the bad.’ The test you didn’t do well on. That joke that didn’t land. Those posts that didn’t get enough likes. Wrong notes on the scale, poor shots hit in front of a crowd….

This feeling is not a bug of our human system. It’s actually a feature and, throughout history, it’s been a darn good one. (How long do you think we’d have lasted if we kept trying to feed saber-tooth tigers berries from our hands?)

Remembering the bad can be very useful. I remember the time a snake leapt at me from a rock I flipped over one summer in Georgia as a kid. I’ve been very thoughtful turning over rocks since.

Seeing the Good Plus…

If we aren’t careful, though, we’ll let the bad dominate our vision and thinking. And, what we think consistently becomes the story of our lives.

Think ‘I can’t hit that note’ often enough or ‘I’ll never figure it out’ a bunch and… you probably won’t. Or, at the very least, you’ve made it a lot harder to do so.

We have to intentionally flood our thoughts with the good things. I’ve heard some researchers say the ‘recognize the good to recognizing the bad’ should be a 3 to 1 ratio.

Meaning? You need to think of the canteen you got that day + all the laughing you did at the waterfront + the crazy fun evening activity you just enjoyed to overcome the missing home feeling when you wrote your letter home.

It also helps to think of the emotion or feeling when you remember the good. In fact, you should really feel it. Your subconscious doesn’t know the difference between ‘real’ and ‘imagined’ emotions. So, if you are intentional, you can insert really good emotions within your imagination surrounding a successful attempt.

Real Life

I recently played in a golf tournament against a bunch of (old) pros. The 18^th hole had water on both sides of the fairway and there was more trouble by the green. In the first round, I made an 8, a quadruple bogey. Not good. Really.

Now, I played the other 17 holes really well. If I went home and thought only about the worst hole I’ve played in competition since high school, I would have missed all the good things I’d done earlier that round.

I chose to do two things that evening. First, I spent time thinking through all the good things that happened that day. Secondly, I imagined playing the 18^th perfectly. I even added in the emotion I’d feel for hitting the fairway, then hitting the green in regulation and then making the putt. I imagined (and felt it) 10 times the way I wanted.

All this took effort, intention. And, it made feel great about the day. How’d I play the 18^th in the 2^nd round? I barely missed the putt for a 3 and finished with a 4 – a 50% improvement!

Make the Effort

Friends, make the effort to see good. It’s easy to see and even fixate on the ‘bad.’ (Though, the ‘bad’ is just there to teach us what to do differently.) And, if you are having a hard time seeing the good, reach out to a loved one and be honest. I bet they can help. You can always call me, too!

It’s a little more than 100 days to start of camp. Can’t wait to get there and focus on the good while learning from the ‘constructive’ with all of you!

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Ti Voglio Bene

The Italian version is fabulous. This is a common Italian phrase meaning “I love you” or “I care about you,” but it is used for friends, family, and close, non-romantic relationships. It literally translates to “I want good for you” or “I wish you well”.

This is totally a ‘camp thing.’ And, it also fits beautifully into the next one:

To Will the Good for the Other

As you may or may not know, I take wisdom from wherever I can get it. I’ve studied every major world religion (and a few minor ones) and listen to people across the religious and political spectrum. In many of his homilies, Bishop Robert Barron says that ‘love’ is simply to will the good of the other.

I love this. Again – totally a ‘camp thing.’

Zoe

In his book, Inner Excellence, Jim Murphy speaks of the Greek word, zoe. This is the state of being totally possessed of vitality, the full expression of love, wisdom and courage. As he talks about often (and I whole heartedly agree), love is fearless.

This idea also comes from Lao Tzu, the founder of Taoism:

“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.”

How About You?

How will you tell someone that you love them tomorrow, the next day and the next? There are certainly more ways to say ‘I love you’ or ‘I want the good for you’ or ‘I will work for your life to be filled with love, wisdom and courage.’

You could do the dishes for your parents who’ve been working or organizing or planning all day. You could read a story to your younger sibling or your grandparent. You could call someone with whom you’ve not spoken with in a while to just check in and say ‘hello.’

(The worst/best kept secret in the world: we ALL want to feel connected but are afraid to go first. Well… Weequahic campers and staff practice courage! You can go first.)

Happy Valentine’s Day, Camp Weequahic. We love y’all!

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I’ll give you a couple of examples and maybe you’ll think of one or two or twenty-two.

When my brother and I were about 11 years old and combing through the comic book rack at a yard sale, I found a particular X-Men comic that I’d wanted for years. It wasn’t in great shape but I had always wanted a copy. And here it was, priced at 25 cents, on a table on a damp driveway in South Portland, ME.  Maybe that first time I felt delight. I remember being jubilant, happy… delighted.

Another one just happened today.

I was talking through the Atlanta airport on my way to our South Florida Winter Gathering. (Can’t wait!) A family with a 2-ish-year-old in front of me were getting organized to leave security. The little boy opened up his sippy cup and the straw kind of sprayed a bit of water on his face. Not a lot – just enough to surprise him… and me as I was walking by.

I watched out of the corner of my eye as his mom smiled a huge smile. Then I heard the little boy laugh… a lot. Then I heard the mom laugh. And then, me being me, I laughed, too. I realized I was still smiling about it a full minute later when someone gave me a funny ‘what the heck are you smiling about’ look.

An unexpected shared laugh. Delightful!

How to Find Delight

We have 365 days a year and many, many of those years ahead of us. The past? It’s instructive and it’s gone – we can’t do anything about it. We can only focus on our energies on the present and make (loose and possibly determined) plans for the future.

What will delight you today, this weekend, next week? I ask because then you can look for it. All of us can get so busy with all the little things in life – homework, chores, planning the next trip… or the next summer.

If we aren’t thoughtful, we’ll dive so deeply into the ‘to do list’ that we’ll miss everything on our ‘delight list.’ That would be a sad state of affairs. Sometimes, you remember that which delights you and look for it. Sometimes, you need some help. Speaking of which….

There’s an old movie (to you, my young camper, though not to me) where a lady takes away a man’s cell phone on which his busily talking, convinces him to take off his (fancy) socks and shoes, and feel the grass between his toes as they begin to enjoy a picnic. Near the end of the movie and alone in the same park, the man takes off his shoes and walks around a bit… before making the biggest and best decision of his life.

It’s always helpful to surround yourself with friends and family who care for your delight. Who can help you with this? If you can’t find anyone close by, give us a call. We’ll be happy to help.

Delighting at Camp

And, as the winter keeps plodding along here in the US, I’m reminded of a delightful set of lyrics from Cole Porter’s ‘It’s DeLovely’:

 I feel a sudden urge to sing

The kind of ditty that invokes the spring

I, too, want to invoke the Spring…. It’ll mean we are just that much closer to the people and the place that delights us all – back at Camp Weequahic. Can’t wait!

Stay warm, Weequahic, and keep looking for the delight in your lives!

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Now, I’m a summer camp director. I had a to look up what ‘conceptual art’ meant. I’m more of a Monet, Penley and Jim Lee kind of guy.

One piece that Ms. Holzer put up everywhere – including on hats – was this phrase:

Protect me from what I want.

This is something I completely understand. You do, too… but maybe not at first. Let me explain with a camp situation.

A Trip to Canteen

You are heading to canteen. What will you choose? Skittles or Legendairy Ice cream? Hershey’s or Air Heads? Hmm….

Actually, you want all of them. And, let’s say some really generous CIT is running show and wants to make a ‘positive’ mark by granting your wish.

You get it all. Everything you want. So, you walk away with a hoard of candy and start enjoying it all. You got what you wanted.

Including the stomach ache that comes from eating too much of the sugary stuff. And the side-eye glances from your friends who only got one of those candies. And that fuzzy feeling on your teeth that says ‘yikes – cavities inbound!’

Please protect me from what I want. See what I mean?

“But wait a second, Cole – that would just be a one-off thing! That doesn’t happen every day.”

I disagree. In fact, I think wanting things – much more than what we need right now – is a feature of our human nature, not a bug. We humans, left to our natural system, always want more.

Why? It has to do with our long-ago ancestors just barely scrapping by just to exist and create more humans who, eventually, turned into you and me.

Go enough months and years and decades and millennia with barely enough to eat and you’ll change the brain of every human that follows.

That pinging in our brain saying ‘Want more! Take more!’ comes from a natural place. And, in this time of abundance, it’s a natural instinct of which we need to be thoughtful. Because it leads to stomach aches, anxiety (did enough people like my post? do I have enough followers?), and more.

The Protection

So, if this is such a big (and natural) concern of ours, how we do we protect ourselves from what we want? Two things. The first is being grateful for that which we already have in our lives.

The second is choosing to be courageous enough to make a choice that is different than what your body and your mind and your friends want.  (See how I worked in all three of our values there?)

As you get older, your wants will change. Just like the boy and tree we read about at campfire each summer.  

The question is, will you be thoughtful about your wants? Will you protect yourself for those easy wants that lead to negative results – screen time, I’m looking at you – and those hard wants that lead to good things instead? (Ok, ok… I’ll go stretch more now.)

Be grateful. Be thoughtful. Be courageous. (And… stay warm this weekend!)

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We are all built. We are creatures always in a state of construction. We are 3-D printed out of the things consume. Our minds are filled with the images and words and sounds to which we attend. At the best of times, we are selective of these inputs.

How does camp play into this? This past weekend’s bowling party in NYC reminded me of the impact of summer camp.

Parent to Cole: “Who are these young men? They could not be more kind and friendly.”

Those, ma’am, are our CIT ‘Boys.’ I put the last word in quotes because their actions this past weekend – getting new campers connected, bowling with the little ones, having fun and being welcoming to the new parents – showed they are fast becoming good men.

Parent to Cole: “My daughter just came up to me and said ‘everyone is so nice!’” That is part of what Weequahic is: a collection of pretty great young people. The other part is what Weequahic does: creates a community in which the best of what is inside a kid shines.

Parent to Cole: “We needed a GAC re-fill.”

Back to the statement above. CS Lewis once said:

“If you want to get warm you must stand near the fire: if you want to be wet you must get into the water. If you want joy, power, peace… you must get close to, or even into, the thing that has them.”

This is why we should get back to camp. It’s full of that which brings out the best in us. It’s full of people who focus on being where they are and with whom they are. And as we know… camp is all about the people.

Ah…. Can’t wait for camp.   

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