It is that crazy time of the month again, when bloggers unite for a little blogging fun known as bloggerstock!  This month I am happy to be hosting a good blogger friend and fellow founder of Bloggerstock, Shinxy.  She never fails to speak her mind and she is always interesting to read.  Hopefully you all enjoy her writing as much as I do!

As usual, Shinxy’s post is very blunt and some may see it as controversial.  If you actually read her blog it will make more sense.  I only post this warning because there are some of you out there who may be offended, but hey, we can’t please everyone all the time!  Shinxy’s postcard is written to Adolph Hitler and she wanted the picture on the back to be the following:

So, without any further ado, I shall turn the floor over to Shinxy for the July Bloggerstock event: “Potential Postcards.”

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Dear Adolf,

There is much debate as to whether the T4 program was euthanasia or murder; and whether it was the stepping stone to the Holocaust (Okay there isn’t. Every history book says it was murder, and it was a stepping stone to the Holocault. It’s just that I disagree). Any research I have done on the subject has ended in ’and six million Jews died in concentration camps’. I am one of the few who separates these events.

My boyfriends and I would have been terminated under your T4 program, but I do not connect the Holocaust and T4. Most people say you would have killed us because you thought us inferior or inhuman, as you saw the Jews. I prefer to think they were indeed mercy killings. In your last few hours, you had to make the decision to kill your beloved German Shepard, Blondi, before the Russians got to her and tortured her. You knew if you let her live, the rest of her life would be suffering. I like to think you thought of us like that. I haven’t spoken to one severely disabled person about the issue of suicide without them sharing a story of an attempt. There are many of us who can only look forward to a future of increased disability. If one commits suicide, one is seen as a coward. If one is euthanised, as you would have done to us, those who care about us can only feel the comfort that we are no longer suffering, not the anger. I would love this option. Part of me wishes I was terminated under the T4 program. I am sure that there are many deceased from that who would thank you if they could; certainly the ones who had descended into madness to the point where they no longer know what’s going on around them, as I will be one day.

For those of the 200,000 killed whose very being was torturous and unbearable, I thank you for giving them mercy.

Regards,

Shinxy

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Hopefully you are enjoying this month’s Bloggerstock event!  If you want to read my own post, you can find it over on Amanda’s blog: Amanda Abella.  If you are want to learn more about Bloggerstock or want to sign up for future events, please check out our website!

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It isn’t very often that I get to sit in the office while not much happens at camp.  I do it when I need to, which isn’t such a regular occurrence, and in the long run, I don’t really mind doing it.  In the wake of parent’s weekend there isn’t really a lot going on in the office anyway as kids don’t have phone times for a few days since they just saw their parents.  So really all I am doing is answering the phone if it rings and playing the last couple bugle calls of the evening.  It is really exciting!

Camp is pretty quiet now after parent’s weekend.  We had a fairly significant decrease in the number of campers and we have a group of 11 out on a six day trip to Canada, so there aren’t too many people in camp.  It is kind of a double edged sword in that it is easier to deal with fewer kids, but it is harder to get some activities really going.  It is noticeable during the day that there are fewer kids, and today we had a bunch of kids out at a football game, so this week we are running a condensed schedule with fewer choices so that the activities that are open have enough kids.  I think that it helps.

We have also been having some of the most beautiful weather over the past few days.  This is the kind of Northern New England Summer that I really love.  While we have had a few hot and humid days, for the most part it is been very nice.  Last night was one of the most beautiful nights of the summer.  We had a nice sunset over campfire and then the moon was just spectacular.  I believe that tonight is the full moon, but last night the moon was so bright you could have pretty much done any outdoor activity.

When you live in a city you probably don’t really take the time to notice or it may not even be possible to notice how beautiful the world is under the glow of the full moon.  Out here we send out overnight hikes on and around the full moon, just to do something different and exciting.  Co-Ed Naked Full Moon Night Hikes – shoes and socks required…. Well, not really, but it sounds good (but hey, don’t you remember that t-shirt line?).

I am still sad to say that it seems like no one has taken me up on my postcards project idea.  My mailbox here at camp has been particularly empty save for a few random bills that have been forwarded from home.  I had hoped that I would be writing to a few of you and have some postcards to decorate the plain walls of my cabin, but alas, it seems that the art of handwritten mail is fading.  At least I have had some people to write to who I knew about before.  There are at least two people who hopefully received postcards from me (one may not have made it due to being a couple pennies short on postage).

So that is the extent of my thinking.  I get distracted easily here at camp.  As much as it seems like not much is going on, lots of things are really going on and the days are pretty darn full.  It is nice to have time to think every now and then, but it doesn’t come all that often.

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Time really just seems to fly and stand still all at the same time.  We say it all the time at camp (and I probably say it here a bunch as well): “The days are really long, but the weeks go by fast!”  Days like today (though most days at camp) just seem to go on and on and on.  I suppose the fact that this morning started at least an hour earlier than normal was probably a contributing factor.  I had to get up early to go down to the river and meet the riding staff and a bunch of kids to go swimming on horseback.  They do this a few times every summer, and this week we are doing it twice.  This morning started pretty grey, but it wasn’t bad, and it cleared pretty nicely.

It is hard to believe that we are halfway through the summer already.  We have been at camp for twenty-some-odd days and there are only twenty-some-odd days left of camp.  Next weekend is Parent’s Weekend.  That is always the most exciting weekend of the summer (I say that in quite a facetious tone).  Some of us look forward to the prospect of getting gifts from parents as tipping is not allowed.  Some think that it is a great time to network with parents many of these parents are pretty prominent people.

No matter how you spin it though, Parent’s weekend is the biggest show that camp puts on.  We start buttering up the kids a week in advance.  This past Sunday it all started with a breakfast of waffles and ice cream.  Oh, we also finally got a protein at breakfast that wasn’t eggs this week as well.  I don’t know if it really works, maybe on some kids, but most I think are smarter than that.  It is just interesting that we allow Parent’s Weekend to be as disruptive to the program as it is.  We can’t really, in one week, make the summer any better than it is.  I think we are pretty much in the groove.

Don’t get me wrong, it is a good summer.  It seems like the kids are having a good time.  The staff is having a better time than they should (or something like that).  The oldest boys seem to be having a ball most nights, running around pulling pranks.  I hope they come up with some creative stuff.  They have managed to not be destructive which is good.  That is what camp is about, so I hope that they continue to find creative things to do.  I have some ideas that would take a little bit of work, but would be amusing.  Gotta keep things exciting.

This is the point in the summer though where everything speeds up.  It is like being in a car with no brakes and a stuck accelerator going downhill.  We will be at the end and it will seem like we just started and yet it will seem like we have been here forever.  It is like living in a timewarp, the best one there is.

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It is a rainy summer afternoon, no thunder and lighting, just rain.  What would you rather do: sit in a hot sweaty gym and watch a movie, sit in your cabin reading or playing card games, or get out on the field and play an amazingly disorganized game of flag football?  Even if you think you are an “indoor” kid, if you answered yes to either of the first two options, you should be ashamed of yourself.  It doesn’t matter if you are 10 or 26 (or older), or if you are a buy or a girl.  It is much more fun to get out and do something, don’t you think?

That was my afternoon today.  Upon unloading my gear at the girls camp (FA) the heavens decided to open up and it started to rain.  I was sitting in the office while they were trying to figure out what to do with the girls and I said that we should get them out to play in the rain, not just sit and watch movies.  While at first the idea was met with some trepidation, when I got the athletic on board with the idea, it turned into a reality.  We collected a good number of girls, most of whom didn’t really know how to play football at all, and ran around on the field in a crazy attempt to play.  Needless to say, there was slipping and sliding and hyjinx and lots of fun to be had!

After an amazingly low scoring game of three “touchdowns” total between the two teams, someone decided that it would be a good time to go for a river swim.  Over to the river we went, and in typical FA style the girls lined up on the docks and all jumped in together.  I really had no intention of going in as I wasn’t dressed for the occasion.  I wasn’t really dressed for muddy football either, but that was very spontaneous on account of the rain.  In any event, I was thankful that I had the presence of mind to remove such items from my pockets as my cell phone, wallet, and video tapes before even playing football.

Why was I thankful?  Well, once we got down on the docks, the girls decided that it would be a good idea to push me into the river.  Keep in mind that I like to swim and I would have been the first one in if I had been wearing a bathing suit.  The only real bummer about ending up in the river was that I didn’t even have a towel with me and I had to drive back to IA to go to my cabin to change.  There are certainly worse things than that though!

For some reason, whenever I am in the water, kinds think that I am a human jungle-gym.  Of course our intrepid athletic director was quite the instigator of this as she told the kids they could have chicken fights on our shoulders (since we were the only ones who could stand up in the middle of the river).  Well, I had girls jumping and diving off my shoulders and we just had a general raucous time.  These kids are crazy hyper, especially after an extended rest hour.  Sometimes it seems like you just can’t tire them out!

This is the kind of thing that reminds me of why I am here and why I love this though.  The spontaneity and general enjoyment of doing something out of the ordinary is what camp is all about.  Running around and getting muddy and slipping and sliding around the field is just so much fun.  I would choose that over a movie any day, it is just so much more exciting.  Plus, as a staff member, seeing the kids get excited and have fun with an activity/afternoon like this is so rewarding.  That is why we do this.  That is why you have to have at least a touch of crazy in you to be a good camp counselor.

There are photos of this extravaganza, at least the river part, so when i get them I will post them.

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Have you ever noticed that the sunset is usually significantly more exciting and colorful on an evening after a storm?  I suppose I could just be making that up or dreaming it, but I think that it is true.  When the clouds break up and the sun gets low in the sky the golden color really shows through.  Summer evenings here in Maine are almost always pretty spectacular, but on a night like tonight, after two days of bad weather, it seems like there is nothing better.

Here at camp the light streams through over the mountains in the distance and the river, then through the tall pine trees that line the high bank, and across the field.  I don’t think you could ask for a better backdrop and lighting when we walk out of dinner and then as it gets later in the evening and taps get played.  The silence and stillness during those moments when everyone in camp stops to listen to the bugle is quite magical.  If you have never had the opportunity to stop each evening, reflect on the day and listen to the floating melody of taps on the bugle (especially when played by a great camper) then you should.  I suppose it is kind of an American thing, but I would imagine that anyone from anywhere would appreciate it.

The evening after a day or more of rain is also special because kinds want to be out and enjoy the remnants of the day.  We take advantage of every moment of daylight that we can get, but the games and activities that get played are much more interesting than those during the course of a regular day.  Little pickup games of anything as long as the equipment is out and available.  It is a tim when everyone is actually in camp together and there are enough people around to get a decent game going.

Evenings are always a peaceful time.  Sure, sometimes we get a little hyper, or we have a dance night, but for the most part, it is one of the best times of day.  The world cools off (most of the time), people relax, and this is when the bonds of great friendships show.  Everyone has a friend and everyone hangs out together.  It is a beautiful time that hopefully everyone stops to appreciate sometimes.  You don’t have to be in a special place like camp to stop and appreciate the summer evenings.  It might have a slightly different effect if you live in a city, but I would imaging that if you stop and reflect, it is pretty similar.

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