This afternoon (still Saturday between sessions 3 and 4--totally quiet) we wandered into one of the Tacoma cabins...Bodman #1. Pretty well clean. Floors swept, bathrooms not so bad, windows open to let in the fresh breeze. More or less ready for the new campers to arrive tomorrow. All of the girls in Bodman 1 left after 3, so it'll be a whole new crew for the counselors there. We saw on a table that serves as a writing desk a stack of magazines, a journal-notebook, a baseball glove, and a small neat stack of (contraband) candy...and a note, folded in half on green stationery. We opened it and read as follows:
Dear Bodman One, We have been at Frost Valley for six weeks, some of us. Frost Valley is a magic place. A place to release our emotions and enjoy the summer sun. We have lived in these rooms for two weeks, and we took care of them. We didn't curse, because we wanted to keep Frost Valley the sacred place that it is. We hope you love it here as much as we do, and that you care enough to take care of this place. Look out for our counselors, Emily & Jesse, and for Little Big Tree.* Thanks, and have a wonderful session. - Bodman One of Session Three**
It's a gift from one group of 14-year-olds to another, and probably none of them will ever meet, or maybe years from now by accident in casual convo about their Tacoma summer. What's especially good about this for me is that it proves that continuity isn't just something that is passed along from year to year by people who stay here for years--but can be generously given from one session to the next. One of the eight Frost Valley core values*** is stewardship, and it is probably (at least judging from the little talks about these values one hears as flag raising) the least well understood. Yet what could be a better instance of stewardship than a group of American teenagers in 2007 asking another group to "care enough to take care of this place." Yes,
that's it. And it surely bodes well for our future, all of us.
* At the beginning of this summer, on the final night of staff training week, the entire staff planted a sapling about 100 feet to the east of the famous Big Tree in Big Tree Field. Don't worry: Big Tree is healthy and has many more years to go. But the staff felt that stewardship was all about preparing for the future (the cliche word is "proactive"). So they dedicated what they call "Little Big Tree" and now the little guy stands next to the big guy and it too bodes well for the future.
** The writer of the note was Sami (see pic below) but it was composed by the whole group of girls.
*** The 8 core values are respect, responsibility, caring, community, diversity, stewardship, inclusiveness, honesty.
This afternoon (still Saturday between sessions 3 and 4--totally quiet) we wandered into one of the Tacoma cabins...Bodman #1. Pretty well clean. Floors swept, bathrooms not so bad, windows open to let in the fresh breeze. More or less ready for the new campers to arrive tomorrow. All of the girls in Bodman 1 left after 3, so it'll be a whole new crew for the counselors there. We saw on a table that serves as a writing desk a stack of magazines, a journal-notebook, a baseball glove, and a small neat stack of (contraband) candy...and a note, folded in half on green stationery. We opened it and read as follows:
