Love

Today we entered uncharted territory and pushed the boundaries as we asked the girls and Mentonians to discuss love. So often love has been discussed in The Mentone Collective, but never has it been the starting directive. It became so evident through these conversations and reflections that love can and does mean something different to everyone. Here are some of the reflections.


"What happens when love becomes more than a word, more than the closing of a letter? Our language overuses such a wonderful word. How can we say we love God, but we also "love" ice cream and honey? Love means something different to everyone... Love can bring wondrous memories or painful regrets. Love is said so often but honestly do we even speak about it, do we ever unveil the true feelings in our souls? Love is so much more than just "love ya, see ya tomorrow." It is an emotion that excites our being. God created us to love and so many times we miss that, we are superficial. We never truly experience His love because we are scared; either scared of the unknown or scared because of our experience. Our world tells us to put up walls and to cower down, but God created us out of His love to love one another. We need to truly understand the amazing, all-powerful love Christ gives us and return that to others not by ourselves but by and through Christ alone. We try to do things on our own and we can't. The inventor of love calls us to follow His lead no matter how hard the person is to love, no matter how different they are from us and no matter if they return our love or not. The love that comes only from above is the reason for our existence. Why should we not bathe others in it and share the love we know to others? Struggles of this world may weigh us down but as Jesus says, "Take love, I have overcome the world." So in a sense, He is saying: "Take up love for I have overcome hate!"

-Catherine, 16

First Meeting with Campers: Second Term

Twenty-three new smiling faces came to the first meeting of second term’s Project Phoebe. Similar to first term, we talked about the vision of the Mentone Collective, as a film but also as conversations and intergenerational relationships. After sharing and discussing the story of Ruth and Naomi, we moved into the more technical details of how film and flip cameras can act as agents of this equal exchange. Here is a reflection of this first day.


"I love listening to people’s stories, but I don’t really tend to tell many of mine, so the “equal exchange” idea may be a little bit difficult for me, which I am worried about. However, I do think that listening is the greatest gift one can give and so I am excited to put that into action. My family has been trying this summer to think about “listening to understand” rather than just “listening to respond,” an idea that I both love and have trouble implementing in my own life. The theory is that you try to listen to really grasp and take to heart what the other person says, rather than just listening to be able to formulate a response. I think Project Phoebe will be a great time for me to work on this as well…I think I will have to step outside of my comfort zone, as Ruth did, and overcome my fear and shyness, but I cannot think of many better ways to do that than through this project… I am going to pray about it and just try to be open and flexible and await what God has in store for all of us."

-Bennett, 16

All Three Parts are Ready to View!

Part I: http://vimeo.com/13102592
Part II: http://vimeo.com/13113441
Part III: http://vimeo.com/13282177

TMC Movie Screening

Click here to see the first part of the film!

Multicolored flags and fresh faces welcomed our twelve Mentonain guests to camp yesterday for The Mentone Collective screening. After reuniting on the lawn, all 225 campers packed the gym belting camp songs as we seated all our visitors. While many of our visitors do not frequent camp daily, most of them have at one point or another been extremely close to the Camp DeSoto community. Mimi Lanier, who has spent every summer on the mountain since she was a little girl, visited with her two granddaughters who are currently here. Everyone loved seeing Sarah Wilcox, who has been very close to the camp community for years as a camper, counselor, and staff.
Once all in the gym, Phil, the camp co-director, welcomed everyone, and then I was able to explain briefly the concepts behind the project: equal exchange, civic engagement, and inter-generational relationships. We settled into the wooden benches and enjoyed thirty minutes of Bonnie's saw, Mary Halley's bookmark, Hoyle's wheels, Maya's dream car, Taylor's photo, Charles' stories from swimming in Little River, and a Robbie's commentary on the abundance of bugs. From humorous to poignant moments, eight year-old girls and eighty-six year-old women engaged in the film as we all learned new things about each other and the mountain.
After the film, all the girl campers were eager to meet our movie stars as they made connections and pointed out their favorite parts of the film. The oldest girls in camp and the project members enjoyed a picnic dinner on the gym lawn as more stories flowed over Gazelle's delicious chocolate chip cookies. We all lingered on the lawn amidst the twinkling fireflies as Hoyle and Jane played their guitar and fiddle together, improvising off of each other. Our singers, Mimi and Evelyn, then joined in, creating a joyous organic mountain concert. At the ring of the bell for Camp's night activity of junior kickball, we said our goodbyes... until next month.

Check out the first part of the film: The Mentone Collective- Part I

Reflection

"Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From quiet reflection will come even more effective action." - Peter Drucker


An imperative part of the collective is reflecting on our experiences together and actively thinking about what stories we have heard or shared. Through reflection we gain perspective on the similarities and differences in our lives and how we might continue to bridge our lives in understanding and communication. It gives us the time to appreciate the experiences as well as the individuals who form our community.

These are several mixed media reflections the girls made after thinking about their experiences in The Mentone Collective thus far.