When was the last time you did something you do all the time – ride in a car, open a refrigerator, facetime with a friend – and go ‘HOLY COW! This is incredible!’

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.  

I love a good story. Books, podcast, movies – doesn’t matter. Thankfully, our youngest son, Luke, shares this joy with me.

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.