Camp Daddy-Mommy
After a winter that seemed like it would never end, summer finally made its way to Cleveland, OH. With temperatures in the upper 90’s last weekend and humidity worse than that, many folks were complaining about the heat. Personally, whenever the heat bothers me I think back to the dreary, long winter and think how grateful I am that we are not dealing with snow and numbing wind-chills.
One of the necessary parts of summer is finding camps for all of my children. To make a long story short, when we tried enrolling our two youngest (Chaim, age 5 and Faye, age 3), the camp they went to last year replied that they were full! I don’t know if they were indeed full or if they just remembered my kids from last year but either way we were stuck without a camp for them.
To improvise, we quickly informed the kids that they were going to Camp Daddy-Mommy! Thus began a week of quality time with our two youngest.
Yesterday’s activity was going to the science center. One of the exhibits was all about sticky materials and they had a lot of hands-on materials that you could do arts and crafts with, including a large station full of different color duct tape rolls to create whatever you want.
Miriam sat down to help the kids make a project out of duct tape and Chaim was insistent that she make him a wallet. In between wandering off in the building on his own and fighting with his little sister, Chaim began planning all of the ways he would get money to store in the new wallet. He talked about keeping all the coins he found in the house (we explained he has to ask his parents before he keeps any money that he finds!) and selling lemonade on the street corner. All he could talk about was his new wallet and all the money he was going to put in it.
When he came home from the science center he was delirious with excitement. We gave him a few dollars and coins that he could put in his new wallet and he carried it around with him feeling like a real “big boy.”
This morning he again showed me his wallet and asked me if I could make lemonade for him to sell. We talked about him making money so that he could keep it in his wallet and how important it is to be careful with the wallet so that it doesn’t get lost.
Not more than 20 minutes later I was in the bathroom and I saw the precious wallet lying on the floor, forgotten by its owner. All of the talk of caring for it and making sure he doesn’t lose it was out the window.
This got me thinking. We all have moments of inspiration which fill us with excitement as we decide to make changes for improvement. We get swept up in enthusiasm and make plans for how we are going to capitalize and build on these new changes. Unfortunately, more often than not it is only a short matter of time until the new plans end up on the “bathroom floor” of our lives, lying forlorn and forgotten.
This week’s Torah portion is named “Pinchas.” Pinchas was a grandson of Aaron the High Priest and a nephew of Moses. When Pinchas saw an atrocity being committed he was inspired to act and stop it. He acted on his inspiration and his life was changed forever as G-d blessed him and his descendants for posterity.
We all have moments in life that inspire us and we make grand plans for the future. The key is to keeping that inspiration alive so that those plans can become reality. Let us learn from Pinchas how to act when those moments of inspiration arise.
In the meantime, Camp Daddy-Mommy is looking to close up shop for the summer. If you know a camp that wants two AMAZING campers please keep us in mind!
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Yosef Koval
