June 3, 2015

  • Camping at a Lodge

    IMG_0844

    We went on a camping trip this past weekend. It was the first time for my two younger ones to stay away from home.  We stayed at a lodge on a lake nearby.  It was a good deal, as it cost us 50 dollars for the group of 36 people, 10 fathers and some of their sons.  People here have more than the average number of children, as this is in the heart of the Bible Belt.  The local seminary also increases the average.  My tally of five is not really so much.  Unless the other seminarian is recently married, odds are he has four or more offspring.

    I don't get a sense it is a competitive thing, where they each strive to get more children than the other fellow.  Rather, it seems more like a form of service they see as a duty.  That, and practically speaking, they do not actually have much else to do as they do not go out and drink or cut up.  Nobody cheats on anybody so their relationships are oddly stable (odd in comparison with the culture at large).  Other than educating their children, they pretty much study and work all the time; this school does not accept government backed student loans so most people graduate debt-free.