Monday, July 10
Fantasy camps for everyone
You know how rich guys can spend $8,000 to attend a fantasy camp with their favorite baseball team? They spend an early February week in warm Florida or Arizona working out in a Dodgers or Indians uniform in spring training stadiums, taking batting practice and working on their cut-off throws and playing a games against their new friends and old-timers from their beloved home town nine? And remember that episode where Homer Simpson attended rock-and-roll fantasy camp with a bunch of aging rockers? Well, I think the world needs fantasy camps for activities other than sports.
We need a road-pavers fantasy camp, where office workers can shed their ties and loafers to spend a week in the hot sun raking tar or directing traffic in glamorous orange reflective gear. Or we need a steel-workers fantasy camp, where artists types can spend a week in the shoes of their blue collar brethren, slogging iron ore or pouring glowing globs of molten metal.
The thought came to me when we were in Washington last month, helping out at the theater camp for special needs people, culminating in the two performances of Peter Pan. I got to be on stage in front of a large live audience and experience first hand the joys of acting and the behind-the-scenes of staging a play, even though I can't remember a line or sing in tune. It was a great experience, and I thought, wouldn't it be great if people everywhere could have the chance to be in a musical, even if they'd couldn't dance or hold a note? Can you imagine West Side Story or The Music Man put on by bad actors, singers, and dancers? I can!
And why stop there?
Just think how many secret dreams of work-a-day lives could be fulfilled if we started a string of fantasy camps for things like lumberjacking, or hotel management, or roofing, or life guarding, or accounting, or middle management, or nursing? We could let waiters live out their dreams as English professors for a week, or let fast-food franchise managers drive semi-trucks. Ballet dancers could navigate tugboats. Archaeologists could teach at day care centers. Drummers could deliver pizza and poets could serve mocha lattes. Oh, wait. Those last two already happen. Nevermind.
We need a road-pavers fantasy camp, where office workers can shed their ties and loafers to spend a week in the hot sun raking tar or directing traffic in glamorous orange reflective gear. Or we need a steel-workers fantasy camp, where artists types can spend a week in the shoes of their blue collar brethren, slogging iron ore or pouring glowing globs of molten metal.
The thought came to me when we were in Washington last month, helping out at the theater camp for special needs people, culminating in the two performances of Peter Pan. I got to be on stage in front of a large live audience and experience first hand the joys of acting and the behind-the-scenes of staging a play, even though I can't remember a line or sing in tune. It was a great experience, and I thought, wouldn't it be great if people everywhere could have the chance to be in a musical, even if they'd couldn't dance or hold a note? Can you imagine West Side Story or The Music Man put on by bad actors, singers, and dancers? I can!
And why stop there?
Just think how many secret dreams of work-a-day lives could be fulfilled if we started a string of fantasy camps for things like lumberjacking, or hotel management, or roofing, or life guarding, or accounting, or middle management, or nursing? We could let waiters live out their dreams as English professors for a week, or let fast-food franchise managers drive semi-trucks. Ballet dancers could navigate tugboats. Archaeologists could teach at day care centers. Drummers could deliver pizza and poets could serve mocha lattes. Oh, wait. Those last two already happen. Nevermind.
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You used the phrase "favorite team" and "Dodgers" in the same paragraph. Just thought you should know.
How about a Best-selling Writer's Fantasy Camp? For a couple weeks, you don't have to worry about a "real" job. You can write and occassionally go to a book signing or two. The camp culminates in a ceremony where everyone gets a Pulitzer!
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How about a Best-selling Writer's Fantasy Camp? For a couple weeks, you don't have to worry about a "real" job. You can write and occassionally go to a book signing or two. The camp culminates in a ceremony where everyone gets a Pulitzer!
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