Evolution Game, The

I've been meaning to post this journal in a while, but never really had a chance.

This summer I'm working at a camp. I was worried when I applied for the job that it was going to be some sort of religious retreat camp. I got the job through craigslist so I didn't really do much research. Turns out that the place is phenomenal and guess what? No forced religious views within this camp! From what I over heard from a conversation between campers the camp is about 40% Jewish, but really there's nothing Jewish about the camp at all.

It's like a microcosm of a secular society, but everyone is established within their own groups according to age. The most I've seen about imposing values upon the children are posters around camp asking to be polite and respect one another. There are no religious images found anywhere at camp. Every week a certain age group puts on a play. I was checking around to see what plays were produced at the camp and I couldn't help but notice a Harry Potter play. Every day I pass by a Jehova's Witness Camp and I often wonder if a Harry Potter play would be shown at that place. It's doubtful, but I always like to think of the different ways why Harry Potter is hated among Christian groups.

During a spirit rally - a day where every cabin has events to entertain the kids - I noticed a cabin playing a game called Evolution. For some reason the game interested me. I wanted to know how it was played. I observed and found it very interesting.

Basically this is how the game works:

1. All the kids start off as eggs. The kids often jump around with their heads above their head and yell, "Egg! Egg! Egg!"

2. When another person bumps into you a game of rock, paper scissors (RPS) comes into play.

3. The winner of the RPS evolves into whatever they want and the loser remains an egg until another person bumps into him or her.

4. This process goes on and on until the kids become humans. I believe there are about five or six stages evolutions go through until they become human.

So there you have it. A game about evolution. Of course the methods used in the game are debatable, especially the part about evolution by chance, but I can't really see any other way of playing the game.

I love this summer job!