I am one lucky dude.  This is my twenty-seventh summer at G.U.C.I.  Now, instead of seeing the faces of my best friends at camp, I am now seeing the faces of my best friend’s children at camp.  It’s a very good circle.  It’s a holy refrain.  And I get to sing it over and over with G.U.C.I. this summer.  Oh my goodness.

You know how memory can fool you into thinking how much better it was “back in the day?”  I fall victim to that trap all the time.  However at G.U.C.I., it happens much less.  In fact, it may hardly happen at all.  I can vividly remember how we sang in the 70s and 80s in our Chadar Ochel (our dining hall).  It’s hard to imagine anything better than Ian Silver calling out “Page 52!”  It was fantastic.  It was divine.  It’s different now for sure.  I think it may be better—a lot better.  Sure, there’s the high intensity jumping/almost screaming/cheering part of the song session that makes many old timers roll their eyes and wonder, “What in the heck is going on here?!”  AND, it doesn’t end there—not even remotely.  I see counselors now literally searching for campers who are on the outside looking in.  I hear counselors’ conversations about their successes and joys of engaging with campers during song sessions.  It’s beautiful to behold.   But song sessions are not limited to the rut of loud singing only.  There’s something else happening at G.U.C.I. that I don’t see ANYWHERE else.  There is a welcoming spirit, an openness, and a hunger for gentle, tender and expansive singing in harmony.  We experience it daily in the dining hall and in the Beit T’filah (our outdoor chapel).  The dynamic is intensified on Shabbat.  The last third of the song session is done in the dark with candles softly lighting each table.  Our community is seated at their tables and it sings its heart out.  Harmonies are thick and luscious.  It’s truly breathtaking.  I don’t hear the staff complaining that they feel forced.  I hear the staff saying, “Thank you” and “Wow” and “Oh my God, did you hear camp tonight?”  I also notice that “the tough, macho jocks” are singing.  And you know what?  They sound fantastic.  They really do.  I’ve let them know and they say things to me like, “Thanks, man, I love it.”  “Dude, seriously, that was the most fun I’ve had in a long time.”

What’s going on here?  How can this be happening?  I didn’t think this was possible.

Most likely, we are enjoying the fruits of years and years of hard work and undying hope.  Whatever the case, we are enjoying a golden age of singing at G.U.C.I.  Every former songleader who has come through the G.U.C.I. gates to roll up his or her sleeves and do the work is to be credited.  The hard work was worth it.  We are in a holy groove.

There’s plenty more to be done—more songs to learn, more Hebrew to more understand, more moments to sing, more harmonies to add.

So here’s to the groove never becoming a rut.  Here’s to the music taking us higher and higher.  And here’s to the spirit that is uniquely, G.U.C.I.’s.  May the summer of 2011 be one that finds us a thousand times filled with the hope of our holy refrain—the sound of counselors and campers singing as one.

Dan Nichols