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.