There is a very long, very old poem that I challenged myself to read two summers. (Yes, I read every night before going to bed, just like a lot of you campers!) It took me all summer and I’m happy I read it. While challenging to understand at times, it’s really stayed with me.  The poem is about angels, demons and humans – so lots of interesting things happen. In a recent article I read, a teacher suggests one of the main conflicts is about the struggle we humans have between two ways of life in the poem: the city and the garden.  The City Mentality There have been lots of great refe ..read more

One of the ladies I enjoy learning from gave a big speech the other day. The whole thing is worthwhile but I wanted to focus on a story she relayed near the end:  …when, on a trip to Israel, I met my hero and now my friend, Natan Sharansky, I really only had one question for him. I asked him if it was possible to teach courage.  He paused and said this: “No. You can’t teach it. You can only show people how good it feels to be free.” Bari Weiss, 92nd Street Y Address By now, if you’ve been a part of Weequahic or read anything we’ve written, you’ve come across our feeling ab ..read more

Speaking with a number of our new camp families through a Facebook Live event the other day has me thinking about being prepared. A wonderful coincidence, then, that one of my favorite quotes from one of my favorite books comes back to the movie theaters today: “Be prepared to appreciate what you meet.” Fremen proverb, Dune Everything – literally everything – can be instructive, can be helpful. For example, a few weeks ago, I slipped while stepping onto a small bridge. My right shin caught the brunt of the impact, sliding along the rough edge of the wooden bridge. Now, why the heck should I a ..read more

While Kate traveled with our middle son to a college visit recently, I took over the enjoyable task of walking camp dog Maverick. Not too far from our home sits a relatively new network of paths through a beautiful wood. Being a lovely Saturday morning, we took a field trip to the trails. Little did I know it would lead to a lesson. The trails had been laid out by a family wanting to leave a positive impact. It wound through the woods, across and alongside streams, under a patchwork canopy of beautiful leaves for just under 3 miles. But the path itself… there are stumps and rocks and roots. Af ..read more

For a long time, I’ve had these little mirrors on my desk. They are about the size a quarter and fit easily (and safely) in a pocket. Kate got them for me a long while ago after we’d heard a story from a teacher we both admire. A long time ago in a war-torn land, a young man was found walking around with a small piece of broken mirror in his hand. He’d use it to look underneath over-turned tanks, under rubble-strewn building lots and other hard to see into places. When war comes through your land, it’s good to be resourceful and look everywhere for something useful. One day, some sunlight had ..read more

When did you realize that you talk to yourself? That little voice inside your head that says things like ‘wow… that donut looks really good’ or ‘wait… what test was today?’ or ‘you got this. You can do this!’ The technical term for this phenomenon is ‘self-talk.’ As far as we know, this super power exists only in humans and is definitely something sets us apart. It’s also places HUGE importance two things: story-telling and intention. Your Story That inner voice you hear? It’s telling you a story. Good, bad, indifferent… it’s a story that you are hearing. It’s almost an automatic thing. When I ..read more

Two recent articles written by highly respected researchers have me thinking summer camp may be just the form of ‘medicine’ our kids need. Researcher and author Jonathan Haidt has pointed to social media being the most likely culprit in the worsening mental health of our young people, especially teen girls. There is a great deal of info that I won’t go into here but you can read through his research in After Babel. Specifically, Haidt points to the ‘like’ feature on the different apps which came into being in and around 2012. Rather than being about connection, social media morphed into perfor ..read more

In the grand scheme of history, we have a lot. And, it seems we are always adding more. Sometimes this is a good thing. Other times, not so much. Technology allows us to do so much more now than ever before. In fact, if you showed your phone to a person from just 100 years ago, they would think it a magical device. And, we’ve all seen the people who are glued to their phones walking the streets… and almost getting hit by a car. We could all do with a little less. What about food? In many parts of society, it’s everywhere, all the time. And, while there are still too many people who struggle wi ..read more

Bold claim: We have an epidemic-level of ‘expectation’ running through society and it’s making us miserable. What do I mean? Here are a couple possible examples. Maybe they fit your life: You wake up and open the app on your phone and expect a few new ‘likes’, news that confirms what you already think or a dozen snaps from snap-friends. You expect the ride to school to be easy or breakfast to be warm, tasty and already prepared. The test you took last week – you crushed it and expect a good grade when it’s returned. What happens when reality doesn’t match those expectations? When those expecte ..read more

We had so much fun as last week’s Winter Gathering in NYC. Over 170 returning and new parents joined us for some bowling, laughing, fun and connection. That last word is important, especially given what has transpired in our world for the past few years. During the Summer of 2020, the vast majority of us lived very separate lives – something that really has never been done in our modern era. We lost a bit of the connection that makes us who we are. A Dawg Lesson No surprise considering where I grew up and spent some time at school, but I’m happy the Georgia Bulldawgs won (another) national cha ..read more