Think & Reflect:
Back in February, we were getting ready for camp and I wrote: “Camp is the most important experience in a child’s life!! This goes double for the Jewish camp experience.” This book, How Goodly Are Thy Tents – Summer Camps as Jewish Socializing Experiences by Amy L. Sales and Leonard Saxe sums it up – “Jewish socialization involves acquiring the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that enable one to be an active member of the Jewish community.”
Camp at the J is now over and children in Dallas will be heading back to school. What will they take with them besides great songs, stories, friendships, and memories? Hopefully, our J campers, Jewish or not, will take the lessons about Jewish values of kindness, responsibility, honesty, gratitude and so many more. At camp, we gave out little trinkets with the instructions to put them on their backpacks and remember the messages of how we live our values. We talked together of what the value means but most importantly, how it “looks” – what are the actions that you take to be kind. Judaism is a doing religion – thinking kind thoughts is not enough! To be a kind person, you must DO kind acts!!
Questions to Ponder
The first step in living your values is defining them. What do you stand for? What is your guiding principle? What do you do when you are confronted with an ethical dilemma? Does honesty win out over kindness? Can it be kind, to be honest? Can you disagree respectfully?
Do & Share
Google a list of values (you can find specifically Jewish ones as well), and you can even check out business values. Pick the ones that mean the most to you, and that you want to live by. Now the hard part – narrow down the choices! Once you have your list of 3-5, sit down with a friend or your family (and trust me, even young children can enjoy this discussion) and compare your choices.
A Challenge for a Week (or longer)
Once you have your list of values to live by define them and write down how they “look” then post them as a reminder. For example, we have a work lanyard to wear and I keep my guiding value in the pouch. It is just a little reminder and sometimes I even share it with others!
Laura Seymour | Camp Director Emeritus | Jewish Experiential Learning Director
Lseymour@jccdallas.org
