When I send out a email asking if the mothers of my girl scouts want to join us camping a common response is "Jews don't camp." Jews will send their children to summer camp, but tent camping out in the woods without showers is pushing it. In the end the statement is really a running joke and not reality. Many of my Jewish friends have camped with us and love it. Of course this is a broad over statement but alive with a bit if truth.
I think about the Jews exodus from Egypt. Didn't god make them live in the wilderness (camping) for several generations to learn how to be free. Only after many, many, many years of camping were they ready to return and reclaim their homeland.
My biological father is Jewish and my mother Catholic. They divorced by the time I was four, but I do remember one camping trip. There was much tension and excitement in the days leading to that trip. So much so that I remember it even though I was only 3 years old. I remember shopping for all the gear - fancy lantern, camp stove, pots and pans that nestled each other, multiroom tent. Cool stuff. I remember trying to squish all the gear and the family of five into the white Mercury station wagon. It seemed like a long drive and eventually we got there - I don't know what site we went to. Not long after we arrived my father severly cut his hand and considering he was a surgeon we had the rush back to civilization to save his hand and career. That was the only time I almost camped with him.
After my parents' divorce he moved to Colorado. He taught me to love the outdoors and explore nature. We spent the summer rafting, hiking, riding horses, building forts, but camp? Never. Possibly because Jews don't camp. Who knew?
- excuse the typos...posted via Windo's iPhone
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