Ten days ago, I put an April Fools post out for everyone to enjoy. It was accompanied by an (incredibly) believable photo of an empty Sly Lake. While it looked great, there were a couple of tell-tale signs that pointed to it being a ‘fake.’
The first that comes to mind? All the green around the lake. I promise you – there is precious little ‘green’ at camp right now. The winter slumber is over… but Spring has certainly not ‘sprung’ yet.
It brings up a quesions: Why are we fooled? There are lots of reasons but a few that come to mind quickly….
We are all pretty distracted.
All you have to do is walk around with your eyes up to see the evidence. People will literally bump into you because they are walking around (or driving) while looking at their phones or listening to something in their ears or thinking about something, deeply and/or distractedly.
It reminds me of Master Yoda’s admonition of Luke when they first met: “…Never his mind on where he was. What he was doing!”
That describes us – as a society – right now. And, when our minds are distracted, we take the first clues of a message and believe it because it’s the easiest thing to do. It’s natural – our brains are literally built to make snap judgements, to find the easiest path.
This combo – our distractions and our brains – make it easy to be tricked.
We love a good story.
Let’s be honest – the picture of the empty lake and all the ‘fun things we found’ at the bottom… they combined to tell a pretty entertaining story. I don’t know about you – I really enjoy being entertained.
A good book. A good joke. A fun movie. These all give us something to talk about and a point of connection. I took my parents – who’ve been married for 54 years – to see Project Hail Mary last weekend. They loved it! We had so much fun in the theater and afterwards talking about it.
We like good stories. It makes us a little easier to trick.
You Trust Me.
Ok – this one is a little dicey but I’m going to go regardless. When parents and staff (and the few kids who read my blog or emails) review the work I put out into the world, they trust what I write.
Why? Because Kate, the team and I have spent more than 20 years backing up our words with actions that support what we’ve said. It’s also due to me normally writing about more thoughtful matters. (As Kate loves to point out… she’s the fun one.)
No one expects something that isn’t true from me or from us as a camp. And, you shouldn’t… except for April 1st. (By the way, there are a couple of examples that support this behavior. But this year’s was easily my best.)
Take Away
As the song says, ‘Slow down, you move too fast. You’ve got to make the moment last.’
It’s easy to do at camp – we don’t have our phones or tech or screens. We get to really be exactly where we are and truly with those around us.
And, when a story is really entertaining, take a minute and think, “Hmm… that’s really fun. But is it true?”
This is not to say something that is entertaining but not true is wrong. We humans have entertained (and taught) our friends and family around the campfire for tens of thousands of years through stories… which may or may not have been true.
In the end, a little bit of skepticism in this day of AI is a good thing to have in your worldview. If it’s on a screen – pic, video, zoom call, etc. – it can be doctored, made up or worse. When something matters, take the time to ask questions, especially in person.
As one of my mentors likes to say, there is no substitute for time spent together. We can’t wait to get everyone back to camp… and our (very) full Sly Lake.
