Hashtag the Pirate

We always like to have some sort of skit at the beginning of chapel in the evening to make the kids laugh.  Sometimes we are successful, and other times not so much.  Because our theme was Treasure Island, Phil & I got an idea for a bit involving a pirate that grew into many good laughs over the summer.  We got the idea from watching Jimmy Fallon on the Tonight Show.  Jimmy has a regular bit involving guy in panda suit.  It's called Hashtag the Panda.  You can see some of the bit here.

So Hashtag the Pirate barged into the chapel every evening to wreak a little havoc.  Sometimes he challenged campers to games of skill.  Other times he kidnapped someone on the staff and held them for ransom.  He lobbed "cannonballs" on us from the loft of the chapel.  When asked why he was doing all this his answer was, "Because I'm a pirate."

Sometimes he made some of our friends walk the plank.  Fortunately we were ready for him, and we sent a submarine to save them.

During the last week we were trying to come up with some new things for Hashtag to do. (You get tired of doing the same bit every week.)  As we talked at the dinner table, someone mentioned sword fighting.  One of the staff kids, Alex, jumped all over that.  He spends a lot of time thinking of characters for video type games, the weapons they might use, and the moves they might make.  He will demonstrate them for you at the drop of a hat.  So we created a storyline that involved Alex fighting Hashtag.   When I asked Alex about the skit after it was over, he was beside himself.  "That was so exhilarating!" he told me.  It was one of my favorite moments of the summer. 

Another time I loved was our snack time entertainment on Thursday nights of camp.  Hashtag would come in and we would call up different campers to dance with Hashtag.  Random music would play, and they would all dance to whatever type of music came up.  At the end everyone who wanted to would get up and dance with Hashtag to "Cotton-Eyed Joe."  I don't have any great pictures of this because all the motion makes them very blurry.  But I did get a couple of the slower waltzes he did with some of the girls.

Hashtag ended up being quite a hit with all the campers.  All summer a host of different staffers played Hashtag, and the kids were always kept guessing about who Hashtag really was.  Hashtag even got mail once from a camper who said she knew who Hashtag really was.  Hashtag became a great part of our activities and our conversations, and I'm really glad he joined us for our summer fun.

The Story of My Haikus

I’ve been writing haikus.  Maybe you've noticed.

There’s a reason.

Christy and Ryan
Christy is crying because it is time to leave
and this is her last year as a camper.
But she found out she can come back next
year on staff!

Ryan and Christy are long-time campers, and they always bring lots of fun ideas with them when they come.  They came for Teen 1 week of camp and cooked up the idea of writing haikus.  Once they started, they got on a roll and couldn’t stop.  

They decorated their cabin with haikus and wrote one for every person in their cabin. 

They wrote one for the kitchen staff.

  

And they wrote one for me.

I'll have to explain about Hashtag in another post.

After I received their haiku, I wrote one back to both the girls.  When they received it in the camp mail I could see both of them reading it and counting on their fingers to see if I got it right.  (Some of you have been doing it too.)

So that is what got me on my haiku writing kick.  That and just being in this beautiful place.

For those of you that don’t know, the definition of a haiku is as follows:

1. a Japanese poem of seventeen syllables, in three lines of five, seven, and five, traditionally evoking images of the natural world.

   • an English imitation of this.

I have found the natural world around me very inspiring this summer.  It always is, but I’ve spent more time noticing, paying attention.  And as I experience these moments, thinking about the writing of the haikus has made me focus on the experience in a deeper way than I might otherwise do.  Listening for the sounds, thinking of a specific word that really expresses what I’m seeing, paying attention to all my senses in the experience, has made all the difference.

Each year people, campers and staff, bring us gifts of talents and thoughts that bless us.  Ryan and Christy gave me a great gift this summer.  I am thankful for the treasure it has been for me.