Rifting on Old Skin...or the Way We Pack Up Our Spaces Each Night with Respect to Having the Space to Do the Magic That We Do

We know that CWP-Fairfield is fortunate to work in the summer location that we do, and that the Dolan School of Business kindly shares its room with us in the summer months. This year, we communed with the Academic Immersion programs, as well as Bellarmine, and it was wonderful to celebrate the diversity, the investment in academic standards, and the possibilities for a better tomorrow. I've said this from the beginning of my time at Fairfield...the summer months look very different than the winter ones. 

Every night, the literacy leaders back up our goods and cover it in two table cloths simply to inform others this is important stuff. I know there is no one else assigned to our spaces in the evening, but we clean up every room each night out of respect for the location, including wiping tables, picking up the floor, and making sure the rooms are as nice as when we arrive. 

Leaving yesterday, I thought of the 2016 Flanagan show (can you tell I'm still writing with Alice Hays, the WGI, Literacy scholar from California?). There show was "Old Skin," and although it is clunky at times, I like the music and the idea of layers of skin at times in our lives, only to be shed at later times. Nice concept, and since I'm into storytelling of 'sport of the arts' I'm thinking about the ways we cover up our work each night, only to resurrect it in the morning. I think this behavior comes from the fact that over the years I've seen how other camps at Fairfield University completely disrespect the spaces given to them. The kids are out of control and the counselors do nothing about it. That's not our style, though. We are there to excel and achieve, so we'll skin up our goods each night only to return to them in the morning. It's a matter of respect. 

Anyway, we'll shed our skin from the summer's programs after Friday, hosting a teacher one-day conference a week later, and that will be a wrap for the 2024 season (now back to professional development in schools). 

Old skin. New skin. Sunburned skin. Peeling skin. Skin in the game while we have it. I simply look at all the materials we place under our tablecloth skin, and I think, "I am so fortunate to work with the CWP miracle workers that I do."

Dang! It's August?