I spent the last week volunteering at a kid's sleepaway camp.

I spent the last week volunteering at a kid's sleepaway camp. Camp Quest: It's Beyond Belief. (www.campquest.org). This was for kids aged 8 to 18.

And to be clear: Anything I say below is my own opinions, not reflective of CQ, and certainly not Camp Quest Chesapeake. I am neither competent nor entitled to speak for those organizations. This is just me, reminiscing and thinking in public. The same thing I do regarding all the cons I go to. It helps me with Con Drop.

Me and my camp partner had six eleven year old boys. We slept in the same room as them, got them up, lead them around to activities, ate in the same place, etc. We weren't in all their activities, but were around them 12 hours a day + 8 hours sleep.

Camp Question is for free-thinking children. Here's a conversation that mostly happened:
Other Cabin Counselor: Our assignment is to come up with a replacement for the golden rule. Any ideas:
--- fart jokes -
Boy 1: How about this: Take what you need, give away what you don't.
Me: ... Do you know what communism is?
Boy 1: Nope!
Boy 2: How about

They talked for a while, settling on something pretty good. I was really surprised to here a kid give such a delightful instantiation of communism. And without prompting.

And another conversation that mostly happened:
Boy 1: Do you believe in God?
Me: Not particularly. Do you?
Boy 1: No. I am an atheist.
Boy 2: Me, too.
Boy 3: What does atheist mean?
Boy 1: An atheist is someone who doesn't believe in god.
Boy 4: I don't think I am that.
Me: All those positions are great. :::wipes away some tears::

Here's another one:
Boy 1: We should be paid to be here.
Me: That's really interesting. I think you'll find that is a morally bankrupt position, but I'm interested to know more..
Other Cabin Counselor: Yeah. What's with that?
Boy 2: We don't get to play X-box, and have to clean and you guys are paid.
OCC: HAH
Me: HAHAHA. You first?
OCC: We're not paid. It's all volunteers. I took a week off work, and a flight from Seattle.
Me: I quit a job. I am unemployed this week to do Camp Quest.
Boy 3: ...
Boy 4: ...
Boy 5: ...
Boy 6: ...
Boy 1: ... Why?
OCC: Because this is important.
Me: Hanging out with you guys is a Good Thing.

The real answer to that is super complicated. I want to help people become better people. I want to practice being a servant leader. I want to be, as best I can, a positive role model displaying non-toxic forms of masculinity. I want to produce a better world. This may be more effective than protesting this administration.

We followed the Rule of Three: All groups that include kids always have at least three people, one of whom is an adult. This is both a Very Good Thing, and an incredibly exhausting thing. You are always cognizant of how many people you can see, and looking for groups of two about to splinter off. I had a couple minor violations of this, which I informed management of immediately.

The kids know about The Rule of Three. They understand it is for safety. Management was fantastic at carefully wording this.

Management was really well done. Also volunteers. The 20+ of us cabin counselors all reported to the Head Counselor. If everyone brought him the same amount of stuff I did, then that's a really hard job. And the eleven year old boys had fewer problems than many other groups,

We were encouraged to take breaks, and I certainly did. After Tuesday, I realized that being in the pool with the kids was really hard, so I stopped. Went and looked after the kids who didn't want to be in the pool, essentially engaging in conversation and reading. My eleven year olds were all in the pool, so this was a good time to spend with other adults.

We also had a lodge completely off limits to kids, except for rare cases. We could curse in here, and be around adults. It's where I took every shower. Hooray!

Here's a rough story.

There were a couple of kids with behavioral issues. I'd talked to one, and he was essentially doing what his dad said to do. This was maybe Thursday. I told him that the way he did it wasn't OK, and if he did it again I'd call the Camp Director. Immediately.

At that moment, I had an obvious realization: the kids are not responsible for their actions. Their parents are, and the most important thing we're doing is providing better models for the kids. And putting the ones with issues around ones with fewer issues, hoping that it all comes out well.

So, last day. We're handing kids back to parents. Everything is bittersweet. Then I hear a fist on a door: BANG BANG BANG. It's someone banging on the bathroom door. I look up, and it's some parent I don't recognize.

The kid with the behavioral issue comes out of the bathroom. Crying. His dad grabs him by the shoulder, and pulls him out. He cries harder. Now I'm crying.

They get a little bit separated in the melee of kids. I get over to the kid, and hug him goodbye. I tell him that he'as awesome and I love him. My shirt is wet with his tears, his hair wet with mine. I let him go.

ok, I'm crying now. End of post.