Youth Camp, Philosophy, and the “Stand Alone”:

I’m at the district youth camp this week and yes, I do have my laptop with me. I have it here because I am not in the hole of a lodge, but in the nice hotel place on this campus. Another cool part about this week is that I have been in charge of the stage and as a the head man for the stage, I hung out with John Rueben (because that is worth bragging about...not really, but they were cool guys and really down to earth.) and the guys from the IWU band One Cry.

Anywho, I got to hang out with the camp speaker, Matt LaRoy - amazing man of God and awesome speaker -, and we’re had some great conversations. It is Thursday night that I am writing this because tonight’s conversation invokes a great quandary. Let me set up the story.

Tonight was the “camp banquet” to which each camper goes crazy over finding a date for and other happy crap. In years past, I have done my best to make a mockery of the situation by dressing as a super hero (a bed sheet cape, orange shorts, a blue t-shirt and bright ole blue tie). This year’s get-up was purely priceless. The Mullet - business up front, party in the back... the calm before the storm - big sun glasses, big jeans and a drawn on mustache. The ‘stache itself was a glorious fu-man-chu of a ‘stache.

This brought up the an interesting conversation between Matt and I. I will now quote his exact words on the “Stand Alone”.

(Disclaimer: if you have a model of hero with a stand-alone mustache or are a fan of Tom Selek.. your paradigm may be rocked)

“I liken a mustache and a goatee to a shirt and a pair of pants. It is a normal and acceptable occurrence to see people walking around wearing a shirt and a pair of pants. Just like a shirt and pants, it goes without saying that a mustache paired with a goatee is acceptable. Then in the summer time, it gets hot, you’re outside playing basketball or working or whatever so (we are talking about guys here) you take your shirt off. That is acceptable. But never, under any circumstance, is it acceptable to go around with a shirt (or The Stand Alone) and no pants.”