It is August 30th and the semester has just started, but here I am thinking about something that was said to me two weeks ago. You see, for the last four years, I have been a camp counselor in the Summer, and as rewarding as it is, it also comes with the kinds of stories that no one could even make up. So why am I still thinking about this one phrase said to me by an nine year old? Well, dear reader, it is because I have never heard something equally profound as it is silly. Let me set the scene for you.
It is a Friday afternoon at camp, as a sub, I am placed in a group of kids I have never met in my entire life, and to be frank, it is by far the tamest group of children I have ever worked with. So it is no surprise that on the playground we are playing games and the kids are running around, until one moment happens that I have been thinking about for three weeks. Three weeks of thought has been put into one moment. A young boy is on the monkey bars, he is talking to no one, he is just swinging away. He decides that he is done and hops to the ground. It is in this moment that we make eye contact, and for no reason at all, this small boy that I had only met three hours ago stares me in the face, and with the most confidence says to me, “people are such hot dogs.” That is right, the phrase that has been haunting me for three weeks is “people are such hot dogs.” You must be asking yourself why, why would a 21 year old male be thinking about such a meaningless phrase for such an insane amount of time? That's a good question indeed.
Sometimes people will say things to you and for no reason whatsoever, they will stick with you, because the things they have said will have made an impact on you. Calling people hot dogs with no context is something that will stick with you. I am sure the majority of people would have let that go, they would have thought nothing about it; I assure you that I am not one of those people. My mission was set in that very moment to figure out what the hell that could mean. Why would a person ever be referred to as a hot dog? It is not like an expression that anyone just knows offhand, so why would he say that? Where did it even come from?
First and foremost, a hot dog is a type of food (typically) made from pork trimmings. It is a food that can be cooked in many different ways, is a common food, and it is a cheap food. But hot dogs can also be made from different stock (turkey, chicken, beef) and sometimes can be stuffed. Hot dogs are equally mundane as they are unique and diverse, but when all is said and done, a hot dog is hot dog. I have decided that people are very much like hot dogs. No two hot dogs are made of the same exact materials because they’re all made the same way. Hot dogs are like people. People are all made in the same way, of all different parts, but in the end, people are still people. I can’t say I know in full what being a hot dog means, but I can say that it was an accurate statement, because much like hot dogs, people are equally unique and diverse as they are similar and that is what makes each and every single human beautiful and deeply interconnected.
