I Choo Choo Choose You
January 22, 2010 by Herzl Camp Admin, under Letters from Alumni.
By Andrew Zidel
In the great toran wheel of life some of us will get stuck mopping the North Haks for Nikayon while others will get a free day. Popsicle sticks or spin-wheels? Some will be responsible for the outside cabin appearance, while some will have to convince cabin mates to move their trunks so the floors can be swept. Many negotiation fundamentals are learned in this environment. Of course, the advanced persuasion technique is truly applied when it’s time for the final banquet. Just friends? Dates? Should we try to make it work as boyfriend/girlfriend when we get back to the “real world” of Hopkins High School? My theory about why there are so many Jewish lawyers is based on the influence summer camp has on impressionable Jewish youths. I digress.
The communal approach to shared living in which everybody accepts equal responsibility for the facilities’ upkeep works. What kind of duties are on your Toran wheel these days? Change the diapers? Walk the dog? Wash the dishes? Make funeral arrangements? Sign divorce papers? Coach soccer practice? Update your resume? Prepare for the SAT/ACT? Find a date to the prom? Attend drivers-ed class? Find something interesting to read during the long hours of chemo therapy? Decide where to watch the (Kansas) basketball game? Lose ten pounds? Clean the gutters? Remember, if your Ozo doesn’t fill out the appropriate requisitions, your Tzrif might not be able to have breakfast in bed.
What will you do when the little arrow (or popsicle stick) says you’re free today? Will you sleep in? Will you teach the Taste campers all the fun little sayings that are forbidden during the Birkat? Will somebody (PLEASE!) help Tommy and Andrew clean the north haks!? …Because you know Jess Taren and Jeff Zoss will be extra hard on them during Nikayon. Or, are you thinking to your self how that with kids and your hectic daily grind, the very idea of a “free day” is a joke?!
See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction.
See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil.
- Deuteronomy 30:15
It is true of the spirit as it is true of battles—only the winners are remembered. Surely most men are destroyed, but there are others who like pillars of fire guide frightened men through the darkness. “Thou mayest, Thou mayest!” What glory! It is true that we are weak and sick and quarrelsome, but if that is all we ever were, we would, millenniums ago, have disappeared from the face of the earth. A few remnants of fossilized jawbone, some broken teeth in strata of limestone, would be the only mark man would have left of his existence in the world. But the choice, Lee, the choice of winning!
- Steinbeck
The choice is yours. The choice is ours. Thank G-d we live in a free society where we are not micromanaged by communist or fascist regimes. Everything about our Toran wheels was/is Utilitarian. These things need to get done or chaos and stench will ensue. And then who will want to be our date to the final banquet? Everything is pragmatic and functional except, of course, the free day. But don’t be so vain as to assume we invented the free day. Rather, we were inspired to apply the free-day concept into our world. Because after all, what is inspiration without application? The choice is ours. The time is now…right? Isn’t that one of the themes of the movie Trainspotting? Well we too were “colonized by wankers”, but then we broke free. One hundred years later, 90% of our Jewish ancestors came to this country to apply what they learned and experienced.
What will you choose? What lesson/s will you choose to apply, and what will you decide should be better off left in abstract theory? Shabbat Shalom, and stay Jewish!
PS. How funny and ridiculous do men look in black leather duster jackets?!
PPS. Ever see it when they have the leather cowboy hat to match? LMAO