Standing on your head is the secret to a longer life?

Notes from Camp #3 - In which Mrs. Lou Nell shows up

The campers have been very confident that they can teach me to dance. They are wrong. They are very wrong. They have vastly underestimated just how deeply uncoordinated I am.

From TikTok dances to cheer routines, they seem to find great joy in making me do things I would never ordinarily do. There’s been a contigency of younger boys this summer all eager to teach me ‘The Griddy’. I even sought out a YouTube video to study it. (For your own education the video can be found here.) My thinking was that I might could surprise them by showing up to camp one day knowing it. I wanted very badly to prove them correct- to suprise myself- and suddenly grasp the movements and wow them. But, alas, no. I am me.

My young dance instructors walk me through each move in embarrasingly simplified steps. Patiently they go through the routines. “See!” “You’ve got it!” “Yes, that’s it!” Then we string all of them together and they are awed at my inability.

We’ve reached the mid-way point of my time at summer camp. Several of you have been passing around my recent emails to friends who are also working at camps. Thank you. It’s been really encouraging to hear from other people who are serving as camp professionals either in full-time roles or as volunteers. You all encourage me so much!

A few years back, I did a series of interviews with children and senior citizens. These conversations would become the spark for my book Becoming Better Grownups. I’d just become a new dad and was eager to find out how I could overcome this fear of getting older. I needed examples of what it looked like to grow old well. Along the way I met some true inspirations who grew elder not older. Better not bitter.

Meet Mrs. Lou Nell:

She and her husband have driven up bus loads of kids to camp every year. They try to find ways for kids to experience camp who wouldn’t otherwise. It’s incredible what all they do. They are always up to something helping their community, their church, and whoever might be in their path.

She’s known for standing on her head. It started a few years back when she was diagnosed with MS. Her fighting spirit came out and she became determined to get in some of the best health of her life. There’s this little cheer she created to go with it and started making it part of all her check-ups.

Every camp has their traditions -repeated ceremonies, games, phrases, songs, or stories that remind us who we are and what we’re about. Mrs. Lou Nell standing on her head is one of ours. On the last day of camp when she arrives to pick up campers, I’ll see that she’s carrying a pillow. She’ll tell me she brought it “just in case you wanted me to stand on my head”. She, of course, knows my answer is yes.

It started as a tradition she created for herself. She’d shout her name and tell the story of this disease she was determined to fight. Then she shared it with her doctors. Now she shares it with us.

I’ve seen Mrs. Lou Nell stand on her head many times now. She’s done it so many times that I should no longer be surprised or moved, but…. the audacity. There’s something so wonderfully defiant about this upside-down woman repeatedly showing us what getting older can look like.

It’s doubtful that next time you see me I’ll be doing the Griddy or busting into some complicated TikTok routine. But, who knows? I over here am taking notes from Mrs. Lou Nell. Maybe there’s something to doing things we never thought we could do.

Here’s to turning life on its head now and again.

Fall down.

Try again.

May it all go upside down.

Three things:

1. An honor! Amazon has named The Fantastic Bureau of Imagination one of the BEST CHILDREN’S BOOKS of 2023 so far!

2. I’m speaking in Atlanta, GA! Plywood People’s event for social changemakers is happening August 24. Tickets are available now!

3. Shop! We still have a few signed book bundles left. All orders are packaged by hand and sent directly to you from Kristi and myself. Browse here!