Teen Night at the Funhouse – Orcas Island, WA

Tea with Teens

Wow, what a group of kids. An early afternoon of serving tea at the Orcas Island Farmers’ Market led to being asked to bring Edna to Teen Night at the Funhouse, a community center for kids that “fosters fun and learning…” We backed into the playground right out front and set up shop. It can be intimidating sometimes to have such a huge drove teens at once, and even puts me in a situation of being self-conscious. I want to be accepted among their peers just as much as they do!

What good conversationalists

Nevertheless, it is always great to have such a young and eager crowd at tea parties. It not only reinvigorates me with youthful energy, but it is a pleasure to interact with people who are so receptive. Age tends to set us in our ways, limiting our ability to think about and interact with things that are “different.” It has been said that kids have just as much to teach us as we have to teach them. Experience guides what adults have to share, and lack of experience, which is intimately tied to an incredible openness to the nature of reality, is much of what kids have to share. In this way, I thank them for being able to help formulate a more open format to discussion. I like to think that oftentimes the discussions that happen with youth on the tea bus can help keep them relating to that openness to what reality is and what it can be.

Thumbs up

Of course, it was also great to hear all the latest gossip amongst them, as well as get an idea of how it is that kids are thinking these days in regards to life and politics and the environment. We also had a good discussion about the idea of what the word ‘free’ means. Does ‘free’ really mean free? We agreed that in the marketplace it doesn’t… Can one then take that idea and apply it to our individual lives as members of the land of the free? What freedoms do we have? Where does my freedom encroach upon your freedom? What does it mean to be free?

Thanks to all the eager teens, Whitney, and the whole Funhouse!

The Funhouse
Properly sipping tea

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *