Candidates, let the 9-year-olds in your life offer some guidance

My nephews, Caydyn and Rylan, share one more moment of laughter before leaving camp in June 2018.

This summer has been a little disappointing for everyone. Travel advisories and gathering restrictions have changed a lot of our normal plans.

For my family, it meant no camp during the first week of June.

Camp is for my youngest nephew, Caydyn, and it is offered by a national non profit at a YMCA in Potosi. The four-day gathering by Camp No Limits is for children who have limb loss, and their families are invited to share the experience.

It’s a family event for us because sometimes multiple people go with Caydyn, including his older brother, Rylan, or sometimes Rylan takes a trip with another family member while Caydyn is off enjoying the outdoors.

In 2018, my sister and I took both boys. What I didn’t tell their father, my brother, when he went for the first time in 2019, is that camp is exhausting.

The gathering is held once a year and families come from all over the country for it. We’re fortunate to live within a short drive compared to others who attend.

So it makes sense the camp organizers try to fit in as much as possible. But, boy, does all that fun wear out an adult.

In 2018, my nephews were 9 and 8. Like most siblings, they can fight like crazy. But when presented with a group of strangers in those first couple of days, they turned to each other for support. They only wanted to do things together. For a while.

The last night at camp is always marked by a big party for the kids and a talent show.

Our crisis came at the talent show. The boys agreed ^— and then didn’t — on what to do right up until the moment Caydyn took the stage... Alone. Without his brother, who had waited too long to make up his mind.

Rylan left the party certain he had been horribly wronged and would never get over it. I had a long talk with him. Afterward, Rylan was certain he had been horribly wronged and would never get over it. (The head slap emoji would be perfect for how I felt here.)

But then Caydyn and my sister came back from the party with the other little boy who was sharing our cabin and the boy’s mother.

And my 9-year-old nephew — who was still a little uncertain about the dark at the time and clowns due to an unfortunate chance viewing of parts of the movie IT — did a very grown up thing.

He put aside his hurt feelings and brought out his new package of trick balloons purchased earlier that day at the camp store.

He handed them out without airing old grievances or any sign of resentment. He made our little after party better than anything that had come before. It was one of those moments where you feel like you’re watching them grow up before your eyes and you have so much hope for the future.

If only I felt the same way watching candidates for political office find new and even more creative ways to attack each other as the August and November elections loom, all while very little is being said or done about the real issues facing our region and nation.

Sometimes it seems like we work really hard to unlearn all of those important lessons I know most of us were raised with, like what to value in ourselves and those around us.

Maybe if we took a step back and asked what we would tell the 9-year-olds in our lives, it would give us a better idea of how we should behave.

Donna is the editor of the Daily American Republic. She can be reached at dfarley@darnews.com .