Sunday, July 20, 2008

I Believe in Lice

I never thought that lice actually existed. Or, at worse, that it was a plight that only befell prison inmates.

Well, I want to assure you that the lice population is alive and well, and doing just fine, thank you.

I spent the last week at Camp Lawroweld - our summer camp in Maine - as the Camp pastor for junior camp. The week was wonderful up until Friday (well, I actually re-injured my knee pretty badly playing basketball on Tuesday), when we discovered that about 90% of the campers, and about 75% of the staff, had lice. I was one of the lucky ones who allegedly had it, but, quite mysteriously, Camille didn't (I joked with a few people that she had me sleeping on the couch during the week).

We all ended up with Mayonnaise in our hair, which is supposed to smother the little creatures, and sending all of the kids home a day and a half early, so the problem could be thwarted and the camp sanitized before the next group came in today. It was kind of a downer to end the week, but such is life. I was planning on leaving early Sabbath morning, anyway, so I could preach at my churches, so I didn't miss much.

And so the questions come in: if God Intelligently Designed this universe, as Genesis seems to indicate, did He create the louse? Just kidding. The question is not much of a mystery (perhaps He did create the louse, or a variation of it, but the little critters - post-sin - forgot their mission).

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

I can't help pointing to a Bobbie Burns poem ...http://www.robertburns.org/works/97.shtml

Bill C

Shawn Brace said...

I spent a year in Scotland, but I can honestly say that I am not quite sure what Bobbie Burns said in 90% of that poem. I gather he is upset with lice, though!

But thanks for sharing Bill!!! ;-)

Dingo said...

Wow! What a lousy experience.

holamickey said...

I told someone your story tonight... laughed and laughed.
I hope you have recovered from the drama.

Charles said...

Shawn, sorry about your "lousy" experience. That would be horrible. I always believe that mayonnaise is best used on sandwiches, and besides, what a waste of Helmann's!! You guys used Miracle Whip, right? Because, in my opinion, that's all it is good for!!! LOL

BTW, Reinventing the SDA Wheel had a very interesting post paralleling your question, but in this case, it was about the Great White Shark.

Anonymous said...

Shawn, From an "Old Timer" that experienced lice back in the forties I can testify that they are mighty hard to get rid of. The Brace Clan of Humphrey's New Brunswick, Canada had them when we were in School and what they did was: Every kid in the school (about 160 kids from 1st grade to 8th grade)had to go up front of the room and bow their head and have a white powder (I think it was DNT) shaken into their hair. Somehow it did clear the "LICE" problem in the whole school. Your Father (Bill) was too young, just a babe, and I don't think he even had any hair at this time. So, he has never had to contend with lice as far as I know. Really, with the amount of hair he has now it would not be much of a problem. Poor Bill!!!! Hats off to you all for using Hellman's and that is a new remedy. Wow, someone at Camp should market it for LICE!!!!!! Aunt Shirley

R. Aastrup said...

Yikes! I'm itching all over!!!

Oh, Shawn! My feelings are hurt! We studied Robert Burns' poem "To a Louse" in senior English class!!! It's a funny poem (mostly about pride)!

But...your experience surely wasn't funny. Ugh!

Shawn Brace said...

Sorry I didn't remember that one, Ms. A!!!

Shawn Brace said...

Thanks, Charles! As you may notice from the picture in my latest post, I have shaved my head as a result of this unfortunate incident. Since I am balding, I was thinking about going this route at some point anyway, but this just expedited that process.

And I must say, I like the new look on me!

Anonymous said...

I don't know if you will see this, but read Corrie Ten Boom's book The Hiding Place. Her sister praised God for the lice while they were in the concentration camp. Read the book to see how they found out why lice are good.

Shawn Brace said...

Thank you for the recommendation on "The Hiding Place." I actually watched the movie a long time ago. Perhaps I should pick the book up sometime.