Survivor Man

I fashioned a long skewer with a looped handle from an old clothes hanger and handed the two fifth grade boys each a single match with a lengthy dissertation on how to build a proper campfire. I explained how materials must reach their combustion temperature before they will ignite. I reviewed all the facts relating to the surface area and total mass of a material, the thermal flywheel phenomena and its relationship to acceleration of flame propagation. All this was followed with a mind numbing safety briefing. I felt it was incumbent upon me to pass this information along to my grandson and his friend, Josh…after all our future is in their hands.

They wadded up newspaper, piled on small twigs, bits of wood, sticks, branches and then a nice log. Then came the moment of truth…A single match stood between us and survival…failure wasn’t an option. Visions flashed through my head of us all freezing to death while lost and stranded…somewhere along the twenty-eighth parallel north of the equator.

OK! OK! Everybody gets one more match. But this time try to light the paper not the log first.

Voila! As the excitement rose so did the flickering and crackling of the fire. The make-shift skewers were placed in the fire to sterilize, the bag of marshmallows was opened and the ceremony began. Grandson Cameron removed his spear from the fire and for some incomprehensible reason touched his finger to the hot skewer. The look on his face was a picture worth a thousand words. I concluded if one picture is worth a thousand words then one hot stick is worth a thousand pictures.

It was a great day of fun and of learning valuable life skills. Only one BB-gun shot to the neck (Oops! Sorry! That’s an Air-Soft gun, not a BB-gun…a BB-gun is far too dangerous…you could shoot your eye out), one well-done finger and two very tired boys…but we all survived.

I opened the back door and we all went inside the house for warm showers to wash off the smoky smell before we went to bed.

Dear Lord Jesus
Now I realize my mistake, I did not spend time with my children
Thank you for the opportunity to spend time with my children’s children.
I hope they forgive me and realize they don’t have to make the same mistakes.
Amen