The Gift of Silence

Why is summer at camp the best gift you can give your child?  Here’s one powerful reason: the sound of silence. “My son reminisces about sitting on the docks first thing in the morning, watching the mist rise off Lake McWain. Being surrounded by quiet buddies and counselors, and lost in the silent beauty of the water and woods and sky.” Birch Rock Camp believes that in our children’s hectic, jangly, distracting world, silence is golden. There are times for exuberant noise — hollering the camp cheer for a fellow camper, whooping for joy in cross-camp Capture the Flag — and there are times for quiet rest periods and silent concentration on whittling a stick. Camp works its magic because it is a radical break from the outside world. Campers marvel at how good it feels to leave behind computers, iPods, video games, and cell phones. For many of us, it’s hard to remember paying attention to one thing, or one person, at a time. Camp gives our children these moments of being. Out of the quiet come creativity and personal discovery and growth. A recent silent film called The Artist is finding an audience in young people who have no experience with this art form. The French director says that teenagers thank him for letting them hear the silence. The director says he compares the silence to zero in mathematics: “People think it is nothing, but actually it’s not. It can be very powerful.” Consider the incomparable gift of quiet exhilaration that summer camp in Maine offers your child.