Reflections on Paradise

I just got back from a three-week stretch at the music camp that I work at every summer. I started going there in 1982 and have been returning in one capacity or another for twenty-six years: Camper in the 80s, Counselor in the 90s, Conductor in the new millennium.

Without going into too much detail.... the camp is kind of my Shangri-La... a place where I can make music for all the right reasons. Anyone who knows me knows that I have a special connection there.

This years episode was about the same: Great kids, good music. At the end of the camp session we had a little "family gathering" where we were sharing with the group what we had "gotten" from the last three weeks. Lots of people hugging and crying. When the sharing finally got around to the camp director (Don), he said that he was reflecting on the success of his efforts over the last twenty-some years, and attributed a lot of it to the input of myself and my dear friend Randy.

Randy and I grew up together at the camp. We weren't particularly close early on. But as the years went by and we both continued to live and work at the camp every summer, Randy and I became best friends. We joke about how a couple of guys like us... getting into our 40s... are still going to camp.

Randy was always Don's right-hand man. He's been the head-counselor (practically an assistant director) for two decades now, and kind of runs the place when Don isn't around. He has a lot to do with the shaping of the social end of things. Randy and Don have always been "in tune" with each other, which is why Don places so much trust in him.

I've never been that deep in Don's "inner circle," mostly due to the fact that I have a perpetually childlike perception of the universe that prevents me from being good at administrative tasks. But even though I initially didn't understand Don's vision of what he wanted the camp to be, I instinctively offered my loyalty and support nonetheless, and have been an inseparable part of the camp experience for as many years.

As a staff member, I initially adopted the role of the "wacky counselor".... more interested in making kids laugh than anything else. This was sometimes problematic, as I had a tendency to crave attention at times when Randy an Don were trying to conduct business (during camp assemblies and what not.) Don once joked that I was a valuable member of the staff "if not always for your less-than-mature eccentricities."

I had a lot of fun being the clown over the years, but I also envied Randy for the more intimate relationships he developed with the campers: At sessions end, they would say "Maestro... I'll never forget how crazy you were. Randy... thanks for all those words of encouragement. You helped me to be a better person." I realized eventually that I had more to offer than just entertainment. In my later counseling years, I tried to be more like Randy, but I never really had his insight into people.

It doesn't matter though... when I became a conductor, I gained the ability to do everything I wanted through music. And while I still have a knack for making the kids laugh, I also get "Maestro... thanks for showing me how music can be meaningful...." But by far, the greatest compliment came when Don looked at me in the circle and said. "I've watched you grow from a super-dynamic comedian into a super-dynamic musician."

Yeah... that's gonna stay with me a while.