rock

"Can you smell what the rock is cooking?"

by Chartey Quarcoo

on the summit of Camel's Hump

EV main page / EV Tutoring / Brian Thompson's home page / counselor's photo album 1998 / Miss Massachusetts USA speaks of her experience with Earthen Vessels / Job Description / contact: brian.thompson@umb.edu or mcthmpsn@yahoo.com

This text appeared in the Fall 2001 issue of Earthen Vessels News.

With full appreciation of my three and a half years of Harvard education, I must humbly confess that in one week at the Earthen Vessels Camp this summer, my intellectual horizon expanded in ways I had never deemed possible. A bold statement, yes, but I harbor no fear in uttering it for I left Vermont in July with eyes opened to a whole new world of wonder: that of the World Wrestling Federation. Mentored by Benny and Jesse, two campers/wrestling historians whose youth cloaked the depth of their scholarship, I picked up on the nuances of this under-appreciated performance art. From Smackdown to sleeper hold, the rich history of this operatic battle for the champion's belt escaped me no longer and I flirted with the notion of advocating tenure for these two middle-school scholars.

I can see the furrow beginning to take form in your brow, so let me hasten to ease your fear that the once spiritually enhancing Earthen Vessels program has become no more than a front operation for the development of young aspiring professional wrestlers (although we certainly did enough training towards that end&emdash;jumping-jacks, leg-ups, push-ups, chin-ups if you dared, and foot-fires... not for the faint of heart). It has not. Yet, in relating my Earthen Vessels experience, wrestling is essential to appreciating the mutual exchange of knowledge that lies at the heart of the Earthen Vessels community.

When examining a program like Earthen Vessels, it is all too easy to fashion a cavalier image of the student counselor offering fruits of knowledge to campers who, in turn, express their deep gratitude for this show of kindness. Certainly, such mentoring relationships can and do develop between counselor and camper. However, out of context, this vision is not only reductive and paternalistic&emdash;it misrepresents the true strength of the program. The path towards personal enrichment is one upon which counselors and campers embark together. Thus, as often as I endeavored to offer guidance (be it athletic instruction or personal advice), I found myself stepping back to revel in the subtle points of knowledge that the campers had to offer.

My days at Earthen Vessels usually began the same way: Brian's eerie moose call awakened the troops and I stepped out of my tent to meet seven tired campers standing on the dewy grass. Until they fell asleep, they would not be this quiet again. Then cereal, toast and tea (breakfast of champions), physical and spiritual fitness exercises, then off to the volleyball court. The first half of the day was fun, I but looked with greater excitement to those moments when I would become student as well as counselor. Wait, Benny, explain once more (slowly, so I can keep up) why Stone Cold didn't win the belt? Go on, Tabitha, explain the special spices your dad uses when cooking the spaghetti meat-sauce. The floor's all yours, folks.

In the eyes of an outsider, such might moments appear insignificant but to me they marked the most telling evidence of growing self-confidence. To see Benny's excitement at breaking down the intricacies of wrestling society was to see one enthralled by his own ability to educate another. Yet it's funny how all this potential for such growth and exchange could easily be stunted by over-preparing oneself to deal with the conflicts that might arise. When dealing with campers, there will always be those moments: "Don't climb up there!" "Stop smacking him with that towel!" "Go to bed&emdash;there are no woodchucks in your tent!" Asserting authority is indeed part and parcel of the job. Yet at the same time, my fondest memories of Earthen Vessels remind me that hyper-sensitivity about the potential for trouble dulls our ability to receive insight as well as offer it.

Case in point: our camp-wide mountain-hiking ventures. Planning for a day hike, everyone thought of how they would push their campers to take that next step when they'd like nothing more than to sit down and drink water. Yet on the day of the hike, I witnessed a maturity that exceeded any of my expectations. Making it up through the pain and fatigue was one thing. However, watching as my group of campers moved beyond "making it" to helping one another up, offering moral support, I soon became just another part of the team. For that period of time, we became one unit, mutually dependent on each other. Never during that week was I more satisfied with my role as a counselor.

Earthen Vessels is a wonderful program and I left camp this summer feeling spiritually reinvigorated. I also left knowing a whole lot more about escaping a choke hold in the WWF. The two realities are most certainly not in conflict.