It's Time to Zag

So while I was at Massanetta I became reacquainted with an old, old love of mine - one that had become buried in the mists of time and almost... almost... forgotten. But not completely. Not entirely. Not entirely forgotten.

I guess you could say I got in touch with my inner Cheerwine.

Cheerwine, y'see, is a bottled beverage which hails from the Carolinas, and is largely unavailable anywhere else. It is akin in taste to a really cherry Dr. Pepper, but it has a bit more bite and a lot of that old timey cachet that just gets you right here (he points to his heart with his hand). It makes you think of another time and place, a place where you can sit on a porch and play checkers on a checkerboard with old bottlecaps for the pieces. The kind of nostalgia which Cracker Barrel tries (and fails) to export wholesale. Cheerwine has that. It has it in spades.

But here's the thing, see. The thing is this. I'm a purist.

If you have read this blog at all, you know I am rather picky about my beverages. And since I am not a cola drinker generally, the fact that there is one soda that I am fanatical about is sort of an exception-proving-the-rule type thing. But even here, I am quite picky.

Not just any Cheerwine. Not in cans. No. Not in two-liter jugs. No. Gotta be this: gotta be Cheerwine in glass bottles. Ice cold. Preferably painful-cold, like out of a long-cooled ice chest.

And here's the best part. You wanna know the best part? The best part is this. Cheerwine, when it comes in the glass bottles, has a different formula than regular Cheerwine. Like all the "soft" drinks, the Cheerwine company sometime back started using corn sweeteners in most of its products. But not the Cheerwine in the glass bottles. No. Proudly and happily they have maintained their heritage - the heritage when these kind of fizzy drinks meant something. When they took a stand. This is Americana at its grand height. Ladies and gentlemen, I am proud to introduce to you a carbonated beverage still made with real sugar (there's the proof, there on the right).

So, when it comes to "soft" drinks, rest assured I am remaining vigilant, though now there is a happy chink in my armor. I think, every once in a blue moon, I can contentedly kick back and relax with a cold bottle of Cheerwine ("On All Occasions, It's Good Taste") - even here in Nashville.

I brought some home with me from the 'netta. Oh, and I found an online source, as well.

Dude. Forget your tired old corn-syrup cola. It's freakin' time to zag!

You've got raisins on your knees!!

So we are one week into the whole Massanetta Conference experience, and one conference is over and done. It was a real learning experience, and I made a lot of weird turns along the way, but on the whole I'd say it was a good time had by all. I planned way too many songs the first couple days, and didn't do a good job teaching them to the crowd (I just sort of jumped right in), so some folks felt a little lost on the whole singing-along part. Such is my learning curve.

By midweek, however, we all seemed to have gotten our stride. Things ran a lot more smoothly from about last Friday on. On the last day there were Many Enthusiastic Folks who came up and talked to me and said I did a good job (I even got a half-serious offer for a pastor position, which I appreciated very much, but politely declined. Small matter of the dissertation to finish).

The next day, however, the co-director and I sat down with the evaluations, and darker clouds returned. So there was a stack of pages, each a distillation of a given groups comments. It was about half-way through that one page read, and I quote: "Play less songs" followed immediately by "Play more songs" as part of the comment stream.

I had not been aware that Franz Kafka was a conference participant, but apparently both he and Joseph Heller were in attendance, masquerading as 6th graders.

I am not complaining. The co-director and my fellow staff have been nothing but supportive of me during this, my first time as a music leader. I am just hard on myself. I want to get it right, y'know?

But let me tell you this (it's my favorite part). In additon to the 'middlers' (a polite name for middle schoolers) and the adult leadership (a group I nominally belong to, given my mentality and general hyperactivity) there is a group of twenty high school kids here, the 'Enablers' (yes - an unfortunate name for those of us still in twelve-step, but still).

These guys are just amazing. I am used to Montreat, where the youth from all over are cool and all, but this is just another level. These young folks remind me entirely wonderfully of the youth group I used to work with back in Decatur that made such a tremendous impact on me. The first day of the first conference I watched as they leaned out the windows of the conference center, calling to the middlers who were waiting outside to come in for the first event. There was this great sense of welcome and anticipation, and I loved watching it. The Enablers were bridge-building, making a space for these gawking and gangly about-to-be teenagers and allowing them to feel wanted and appreciated - a set of feelings not often conveyed to this age group by adults, let along by high school kids. Watching that happen - without an adult suggesting it or anyone being forced to - watching it happen naturally - has done more for my knee-jerk cynicism this past week than anything I have seen in the past year. It is a warm memory I will take with me and treasure for a long time.

I think we - the adults and the Enablers - have become a solid team. We work well together, and there is a lot of respect running both ways across the age divide. I've had several of the teens help me out with songs and I've pitched in to help with clean-ups and other responsibilities that normally fall on their shoulders. Their energy is infectious, and the adults I work with are stellar, as well. A good cross-section of recent seminary grads, seasoned pastors, and outdoors-y types. I feel like I am making friendships that will last a long, long time. I hope so.

Here's the last bit. So part of my task in preparing for this gig was to write the conference theme song, and I did. It ends with the proclamation, "Massanetta, you've got reasons to believe!" which is greeted by an enthusiastic cheer by the Enablers (again, very supportive). But the other morning, between conferences, I walked through the lobby of the lodge where I'm staying and was serenaded by Enablers and staff, singing (to the tune of the theme song), "Massanetta, you've got raisins on your knees!" (This was apparently composed by one of the Enablers while she was in the shower a couple mornings ago, and it has spread like any good meme does)

Tonight, at the kick-off of the new conference, as I reached the end of the theme song the first time through, I couldn't be completely sure... but I think I heard that being sung at me from both sides of the hall, where the Enablers stand. And from the back, where the adult leadeship sits.

It was hard to finish the song, because I was laughing pretty hard at that moment.

I am very glad I came here.

I'm the Guy that does that Thing

So I am AWOL from my normal life again, this time for a good two weeks. I have fled, once again , to the wilds of Virginia - but this time to the mountains, not to the sea. Oh, and I am about to be surrounded by 300 some-odd middle schoolers.

Because, you see, I have skills. Arcane and strange skills that involve the ability to make a fool of myself in front of large groups of people without collapsing into embarrassment, which comes in handy when you are wanting to do things like, oh, get hundreds of twelve-year olds to sing along with you.

I am, once again, doing that youthworker thang.

This time, though, it's a little different. Instead of being a grunt, I am actually the music leader at the Massanetta Springs Middle School Conferences for the month of July. Which means, hallelujah, I am being paid to be a musician (as most musicians will tell you, this is a rare and wondrous honor).

I've never done anything like this before. I've done some small-scale song leadership, but here I am hooked up with wireless microphones and power-point projectors and I am referred to in the planning schedules as one of the "Big 3" (along with the Keynote leader and the Recreation leader) and I get my own room. If you've never been to a youth event before, lemmetellya - your own room is worth more than gold.

So I have gotten my callouses back from playing guitar so much, and I have learned or re-learned about forty songs of various stripes from traditional hymns to "contemporary Christian" hits. Plus I've written one of my own - the theme song for the conference (which is standard practice for the music leader to do).

I premiered it for the staff this morning, and they were very enthusiastic about it, which was a very good thing (as I was and remain quite nervous about the whole enterprise. But hopeful, and prayerful, too).

So tomorrow the youth arrive, and this thing gets off the ground for real. I'm quite excited. And hopeful. And nervous.

And prayerful.