I've got half an hour to rip off a post so I'm gonna be liberal
on the editing - please bear with me if this sucker is laden with
grammatical feces.
In wanting to express an epiphanal moment yesterday and
knowing that I had a prime picture to depict this moment
on facebook, I remembered that facebook is now firewalled
from my workplace (damn you nucomm...damn you STRAIGHT
to hades...do not pass go...and may the good Lord have mercy
on your soul). In my utter haste and need for a pic, I remember
that I blogged on myspace in the summer and found this pic
online. The above pic is not the person I am referring to but
oddly enough, the person IN the pic above ties myself and this
person together.
The person in the pic is Jim, or more fondly known as 'Jim the
Cook' or 'Jim the Pentecostal Newfie', etc. He has been the
main culinary master at Camp IAWAH for over a decade. He is
part of the Iawah experience that cannot be removed - a fixture
of the goodness that comes from hard work, steady portioning of
fibre into all foods and loud-mouthed humour. I love Jim and
I'm really looking forward to seeing him.
How Does This Relate to said Person - A Timeline
1995: Said person arrived at Camp IAWAH, wore camo pants
and a calgary flames hat. He was very quiet and spent most of
his free time on his top bunk reading Calvin and Hobbes. I didn't
talk to him too much because he didn't say much...but in some odd
way...we connected.
1998: Said person did the leaders in training program after sticking
around Iawah for a few years and started to become loud and wild.
Since loud and wild was my forte at Iawah for that time period, he
fit right in, dyed his hard a horrid colour (as all the homies did) and
spent most the summer on crutches for screwing up his knee.
2001: After working at Iawah for many summers with said person,
having prayer walks with him at night while all kids slumbered in their
cabins and on bell hill, we formed a bond. We spent the early spring
of this year at Iawah together, playing a LOT of tecmo bowl (which
usually included him firing a controller at a nearby wall and droppin'
the F bomb), cleaning buildings on days off and working in the kitchen
with Jim. Said person would hug Jim a lot causing Jim to resist, grab
nearby knives and call said person 'Elton John'.
2006: I stood in his wedding party as his best man.
March 19, 2007: I had a horrible day on the heels of a horrible sleep.
He was online and encouraged me greatly, throwing some needed
sunlight into my sometimes very dark work life. I don't fully know
if he gets what he did...but it meant much to me.
'The most visceral extension of God is seen through people'
I love you Justin.
