Day 112: the last day

where to start..

has it really been nine weeks of consecutive camps? and now, in a sudden and final ending of fun and friends and sharing and music, it's all over. and not just for one week's pause before the a new camp and new faces, but the end of the end.

youth camp is the grand finale of summer where the campers are fourteen to eighteen years old and there's a huge overall amp in the week and program.

part of this is the banquet where many work hard to set and prepare a classy outdoor dining area on the field. banners and white strings of lights hang from poles like a circus tent skeleton and an atmosphere not much unlike prom has filled every camp outlet with blow driers and whatever else girls brought in preparation for this night. from the stage along the outer circumference, the sun is seen fading behind the mountain and i feel like a lizard in the warm glow of the nearby standing stage lights. they take effect as the mountain begins to sleep in the growing night and i think that i'm content because i'm playing piano as the six hundred campers and friends and staff are seated and laughing in the ocean air. friends dash up on stage at random times to take pictures and the music doesn't stop and there was jazz and octaves and seventh chords and the purest, cleanest, most-fitting recreations as i can pull in this moment that has now become the realization of a long and deep desire for an outdoor audience and piano and mountains and everything.


now, much later, i'm in my office for the last night. i'm only half way through the dvd label stamping and case filling because i couldn't bring myself to leave the fireside. the campers shared stories about broken pasts and broken homes and lives that they're scared to face again tomorrow afternoon. why do i have it so good..

i'll be awake again in a few hours to make it to the final breakfast and my first in several weeks. i'll clean the office, pack my bags, say goodbye to camper and staff friends, and the lights will go out suddenly after such a long and beautiful and admirable summer.

i don't know what else to say right now.