Real Men Don’t Blog

Posted By on Jul 22, 2010 | 1 comment


I’m not one for gender stereotyping, but for some reason all the males that I ask to write blogs hem and haw and then run away. The teen girls are all “Sure!” and write something. So if the coverage appears unevenly represented, it’s not for lack of trying.

Speaking of uneven representation, I had a conversation late last night (very late!) with Tim L about how we still appear to have a very skewed representation of professions. When we were younger, our parents seemed to mostly be engineers, doctor, and other professionals. Now, an informal poll indicates that we have at least 7 doctors, some lawyers, and a bunch of engineers.

It might appear from the pictures of activities that we are doing the same things as last year. In fact, in a DVD of historical footage from 1977, we heard Aunty Lilly say that Camp at that time (its 19th year) did many of the same things as the first Camp at Lake Delevan – played the same games, sang the same songs, had essentially the same structure. On the surface this is all true even today, but the differences are in the “in between” times, the spontaneous conversations, and just seeing the kids grow up and change every year. There is comfort in the constancy, knowing that certain things are going to stay the same (and that someone will probably fall into the water during boating). But there are lots of new elements. Right now, the pre-teens are watching videos of “The Monkey King” story (in Chinese with English subtitles) projected on a big screen. I think generally speaking, the parents of this generation are more relaxed about parenting than our parents before – but they are busier than ever with work and other obligations.

We miss the constancy of having Allen and Vevan at Camp. They were remarkably dedicated to come for the first few days of Camp. Allen has even authored a skit for Festival remotely. We all send our best wishes and prayers to them and Ginger and the whole family.

— Mark C.