When someone is a camp counselor, they accrue a repertoire of camp songs and stories that they love to perform for their campers. Perhaps my favorite camp story to tell is called “The Purple Wombat.” It's a story that is both brilliant and confusing, simple and complex, emotionally stimulating and logically baffling. And it goes something like this.
Once upon a time, there was this kid named Timmy. Timmy was a really good kid; he respected his parents, he got along well with other people, he was polite. Overall, just a really cool, upstanding guy. Well, Timmy and his parents moved to a new city and he was about to start his first day at his new school. He was really excited about it too. He was excited to meet his teachers and make new friends and see what his classes were like. The morning of his first day, he woke up early and packed his lunch and was outside all ready by the time the bus came. When he got on the bus, he found an empty seat next to another kid, so Timmy sat down and started talking with him. He and this other kid really hit it off; they had a lot in common and were really getting along well. As the bus began to fill up, the other kid began to introduce Timmy to the other students and Timmy started making friends left and right.
As they were riding along, Timmy suddenly heard someone sitting behind him say the phrase “purple wombat.” Now Timmy had never heard of a purple wombat before. Curious to know what it was, he turned around and said, “Excuse me, I just heard you mention a purple wombat. What is that? I've never heard of one before.” And the whole bus got kind of quiet. “Wait a minute,” the kid next to him said, “you don't know what a purple wombat is?”
“Well, no,” Timmy replied. “I'm new to this school, is it like a school thing I need to know about?”
Instead of answering, the other kid jumped out of the seat and ran to the front of the bus. Pointing behind him, he said, “Hey, bus driver. You see that kid back there. He doesn't know what a purple wombat is.”
The bus screeched to a halt. The bus driver called Timmy up to the front. So Timmy went without question, because he was a good guy who respected his elders.
“Tell me something,” the bus driver said, “do you know what a purple wombat is?”
“Well, no,” Timmy replied. “I just heard someone mention it for the first time, I have no idea what it is.”
“I can't believe it. I'm sorry, but I need you to go sit in the back of the bus by yourself for the rest of the ride.”
Well, Timmy was a little confused by this, but he unquestioningly followed orders and went and sat in the back of the bus for the rest of the trip to school.
For the rest of the day, Timmy kept hearing about the purple wombat and kept getting in trouble for not knowing what it was. His new friends shunned him and his teachers punished him. Eventually, he got sent home from school by the principle for his ignorance, and even got grounded by his parents. The whole world seemed to be against him, and he cried himself to sleep that night, weeping tears of confusion and frustration for how unfairly he was being treated.
In the middle of the night, however, Timmy heard a voice coming from outside his window: "I'm the purple wombat, come and find me." At last, Timmy finally had a chance to learn what the purple wombat really was. Excited and determined, Timmy climbed out his bedroom window, shimmied down the drainpipe, and dropped down into his backyard. Now, Timmy's house was bordered by a forest, and from the forest he heard the voice again say, "I'm the purple wombat, come and find me." So Timmy began to climb through the brush and briars of the forest, getting cut up and running into trees, but unwilling to turn back until he learned the truth.
Eventually, he came to the edge of a small lake. From across the lake he heard the voice again say, "I'm the purple wombat, come and find me." Along the edge of the lake, Timmy found a small rowboat. Jumping in, he began to row across the lake, working until his arms were sore. Finally, he reached the shore on the other side and again heard the voice call out, "I'm the purple wombat, come and find me." So Timmy stood up in the rowboat, fell out and drowned.
Moral of the story: Don't stand up in a boat.
I love telling this story to my campers and seeing their reactions to it. Some are completely confused and don't understand the story at all. Some get angry and think the story is stupid because it doesn't end the way they expected. And a few, like me, actually love and appreciate the story for it's brilliant structure, the way it builds up this mystery and struggle and then ends with a ridiculous conclusion. Usually, I can make this story last a good ten or fifteen minutes, which builds up the hype even more and makes the reactions that much better.
However, while this is a good camp story, I think there is also a good commentary about expectations that can be found from these different reactions. Because so often in life, we get played in the same way. We expect one thing to happen and then something completely different happens instead. There are some mysteries that we never get the answers to and some conclusions that are genuinely unfair and disappointing. Still, like the purple wombat story, I have found that, even though some things in life don't conclude the way I'd hoped or expected, there is still a grain of truth or wisdom to be gleaned. From Timmy's story, while we never find out what the purple wombat is, we do learn the valuable lesson of not to stand up in a boat. It is not the lesson we wanted, but it is still good, usable advice.
In life, we react to disappointments differently. Some people react in confusion, unable to cope with the disconnect between expectation and conclusion. Some people react in anger, feeling that the disappointment is unfair and uncalled for. And some people react in joy, knowing that the journey to the conclusion is the best part. I think this is an important perspective to have in life, because disappointments happen all of the time. We don't land the job interview, a romantic relationship doesn't last, family members and friends let us down. However, more often than not, looking at the bigger picture in such situations is what helps us cope the most. The conclusion might suck, but seeing the value in the rest of the story is what helps us appreciate the lesson the story represents.
So while the purple wombat might be just a silly camp story, I think it definitely teaches me to enjoy all of the ridiculous little moments in life that actually add up to a much cooler bigger picture.
