Stating the Obvious

I've begun and erased a post about 3 times now. Something didn't feel right about how I was putting down my thoughts. I felt like I was either concealing something, magnifying some small point, or just not getting it to feel right.

I think it might be that instead of just plainly recounting my experiences that I was trying to use as the basis for my post, I tried to draw some meaningful theme or conclusion first and then write a post around that. I think I should put these two phrases into my blogger post template so I'll see them before I write a post:

"You're not nearly as insightful as you think you are."

and

"Experiences are what form your biases, state your experiences in plain language just as a philosopher should state his biases."

So instead of drawing some broad conclusion from some little event I think I'll just open up my source code a little and mention some of the good experiences I had this weekend.

• I got to talk to a pretty brilliant 12 year old about the things he's into, what his school is like, how he gets along with his teachers and classmates, and got to see his drawings that he does. He was pretty intelligent but in a very easy-going way. He asked lots of questions, like kids are supposed to, but I was pretty surprised when I realized that a lot of the questions he would ask didn't necessarily have a right or wrong answer. It was a really pleasant experience talking about those kinds of questions, like 'if an economy were a computer, how would it be structured?', and I'm going to try and ask more of those types of questions myself.


• I got the opportunity to talk a lot more with people I know as 'friends of a friend', camping is great for that sort of connecting opportunities.
  
  
• I emerged from my tent a bit before my tentmates did, so I cooked up some breakfast burgers. Everyone shared food or cooked for each other or made coffee or helped to clean up whatever needed cleaning. We didn't 'keep score' or pick out their own dishes and leave the rest. Also: if you go camping, buy 3 times as many cereal bars as you think would be sensible. Buy enough that you don't ever think twice about giving one away.
  
  
• Saying 'hi' to random people, randomly, turned out really well when I did it. Lots of fun little conversations and stories came from it. I think 'hi' is a magic word. j.pants has a little habit of saying 'hi' at random times even to close friends as they mill about. I like that a lot, just a little 'ping' to keep the connection active.
  
  
• I got to finally introduce my work friends to the group I came with, it wasn't a full introduction, just a cruise through the tent area and some hellos, but I'd like it if we could mix a little more in the future.