Judge Not ... Lest Ye Be Judged

I am associated with a religious organization that provides a summer camp for kids.  My daughter went to this camp recently.  Several young women from our congregation went the same week, along with several Moms to provide leadership and support.

Now Girls Camp should be a good experience for everyone, and since this is a week-long camp, it was up to the last day.  My daughter would text me each evening before she went to bed.  She was excited about all the hikes and crafts and outdoorshish things that she was doing.  She even caught a squirrel in a trap she made from a tin can!  (She let it go.)

So she had lots of fun doing the camp scheduled things, but of course she did all the things that a young girl would do at camp including pranks and more pranks and still more pranks.  That is what caused a bit of a problem on the Thursday evening before going home on Friday.  You see, there were four girls in their cabin, and one girl thought it would be funny to pants another girl.  (For those of you who don't know, pantzing is pulling down the pants of someone.)  Now, these girls had returned from an afternoon hike, where they had worn shorts.  Towards evening, as it got colder, they had put on sweat pants, so this first pantzing caused the girl to still be in her shorts.  Funny, yes, damaging, no.  So, the girl who was pantzed turns around and pantzes my daughter.  Now all four girls are laughing and carrying on in a humorous manner.  My daughter then pantzes another girl, who apparently wasn't wearing shorts under her sweat pants.  (Now remember, these four girls are the only ones inside their cabin...) This girl, who had been laughing when the other two girls were pantzed, lets out a blood curling scream, pulls up her sweat pants and runs out of the cabin screaming like someone had pointed a gun at her!

Of course all the Girls Camp leaders run to see what the matter was.  This girl tells them that she had been terrorized and that what had happened to her was the most traumatic event of her life!  She would never be the same!  And that my daughter was the devil himself!

Rather than try and find out what had happened, several of the leaders ran over to my daughter and criticized her for what she had done.  They didn't try to get the whole picture that a small group of girls were just trying to have some fun.  They put my daughter through the ringer and would not listen to her side, nor the other two girls side of the story.  So by this time, my daughter had returned to her cabin and was in tears!  What a way for a Girls Camp experience to end.  And this would have been the end of the story if it were not for a Samaritan leader who went into my daughter's cabin, waited for her to calm down, and talked with her.  When my daughter was able to speak, she told this counselor that what had happened was a innocent joke gone wrong.  The counselor also talked to the other two girls involved, and they supported my daughter.  The she went and talked to the girl who had freaked out, running out of the cabin screaming.  She admitted that maybe, just maybe, she had over reacted.

 

In the aftermath of the evening, according to my daughter, since I wasn't there, the counselor that had heard her side of the story talked with all the involved leaders.  Even though a lot of the leaders still, firmly, felt that my daughter was in the wrong, most softened up.  My daughter, being the way she is, immediately made up with the girl who thought she was victim.

After all this was over, the last major event of the camp Thursday night was a get-together by the fire where the girls and leaders have a chance to discuss how they have enjoyed the camp.  The counselor that had helped my daughter invited her to come to the fireside chat.  My daughter instinctively didn't want to, but she softened up and went.  The other leaders and girls came.  Camp ended the way that it should have.  When my daughter came home, she didn't want to worry about what had happened, she just put it behind her, chocked it up to experience.  I like that attitude.  I hope that the leaders will feel the same way.  I do appreciate the counselor who did not judge and helped my daughter out of a particularly perilous situation.

I'm going to try my darnedest to not judge people.  It is so hard sometimes.  I just need to try and feel what the person that I want to judge may be feeling.

Til next time,
Bill