Director's Corner
Recently I found myself in a checkout line wearing a NaCoMe shirt. The gentleman behind me tapped me on the shoulder and told me he remembered coming to NaCoMe as a kid. He shared a couple of memories and then with the gracefulness of an octopus in rollerskates he hit me with "Is the creek still running?" and waited. Normally I would say a question like that comes from someone meaning well but just not really knowing what to ask or getting a bit tripped up by their words. This man did not fall into that category. He eagerly awaited my response and I shared- to his relief- that the creek was still running and just as strong today as ever.
To him, as to many others, the creek is a sacred part of camp. From boat races to baptisms to crawdad hunts, the creek is a part of so many NaCoMe stories. That's what sacred things do; they form the guideposts to both our individual stories and our collective community stories.
Sacred things exist everywhere, big and small. Some are clearly more important than others, but even the small ones matter. The holiday gravy on my wife's side of the family must have a(n obnoxious) certain number of hardboiled eggs. The eggs are how you know the recipe has been followed; the eggs are how you know it's the family's gravy.
The holiday season is a season of the sacred, of sharing once again those things that serve as guideposts to our stories. As we begin the mad rush toward Christmas, I invite you to take time to think about what things make your holidays special. Whether it's the people, the places, or even the eggs, seek out those things and share them. The sacred is what makes this time of year so special.
Here's to the creek always running,
-Ryan "Flash" Moore, Director
