By Simon Ambit
My sons and I were recently invited to attend a “Fathers and Sons” camp-out. This is an overnight camping trip where a group of brave fathers load up their sons and take them camping for a night. My boys jumped at the invite, and I accepted the challenge! With a hug and a lunchbox full of snacks, my wife wished me luck and turned us loose.
The setting was full of rambunctious lads everywhere. They were playing football, baseball, racing, telling tales, playing in the fire, hiking and more. Their sons were having even more fun! It was amazing to me that with that many dads in charge, not a single boy was broken-boned, lost in the dessert, sold for a price, nor traded for nachos. The camping arrangements were as diverse as the people; some setting up to sleep in fully equipped RVs and others in tents. Some slept in the beds of pick-up trucks while others slung hammocks from Pinyon Trees. We ate until we were stuffed and then were fed cobbler and ice-cream. Man and boy alike would have to agree that it was awesome!
There was a brief calm in the storm of excitement, as just after dinner everyone gathered around a central fire-pit. A peaceful calm settled in as boys and their fathers from all throughout our local area and beyond, some of them sitting in family groups of three and four generations deep, all united together as they sat around the fire and listened to the speaker relate the importance of setting and following good examples, having integrity and living what you believe is right.
I was grateful for the opportunity I had to sit at the fire, encompassed by the night sky of nature, my boys upon my knee an sitting next to me, while we all spent a little time doing something that will create a memory that will outlast us.
Long after the closing campfire remarks and after the last log succumbed to the embers, my sons played night games among new acquaintances as if they were old friends. They played capture the flag using glow-sticks as well as several other games under a stadium of flashlight and lantern. Upon finally crashing into their sleeping bags on the tent floor, the boys slept well and awoke to the smells of breakfast sausage, eggs and flapjacks before dashing off with their new friends for more games and fun.
We pulled in the driveway that afternoon with a truck full of dusty campers, Kool-Aid stained upper lipped boys, a lizard in a water bottle and a lunchbox full of candy wrappers and memories that are worth the world to us. In all of our doings, in all of our comings and goings, in all of the race and the rush of our routine, may we remember that life is good, do something that will outlast yourself. Take time to talk around the fire and don’t forget the glow-sticks; the night games are just as important!