You Can't Go Back

Miss Porters Summer Camp for Girls accepts campers from age seven to seventeen. You can enjoy ten summers there, but no more. Those are the rules, and they are immutable.

I went back to the meditation garden after lunch. I was supposed to be in water dousing class, but Miss Porter never frowned on self exploration. I was determned that if Salvia knew the secret of the meditation garden, then I would also.

I doubt that most nine-year-olds can understand the concept of meditation, much less employ it, but that's when Miss Porter introduces her girls to the meditation garden. At about the third week, when everyone has had a chance to become familiar with the cabins, dining hall and classroom lodge, and each other, the third year girls are called together, paired up and led through the back door of the lodge into the garden. Outside the lodge, it's just the flower garden, with red roses and bronze fountains and pink peonys. At the far side of the garden is a white gazebo.

I don't think that the cabins at Miss Porter's Summer Camp for Girls were crafted to be ugly. The intent was to be a plain, blank canvas upon which to create one's masterpiece. After all, any five-year-old can craft a decent illusion in which to decorate a bedroom. The youngest girls took advantage of this design freedom to create outlandish spaces for themselves--caves encrusted with glowing jewels, castles made of clouds, jungles teeming with strange flora and hostile fauna. Older girls created opulent fabrics, exotic hardwoods and luxurious tiles.