The Polite Peoples' Club Has Their Work Cut Out for Them
Katie here.
Some of you may be familiar with the Polite Peoples’ Club. Here’s the story: some of the Stuffies are in a group of friends that are kind to each other. They have nightly meetings with tea and crackers. There’s also hot chocolate and coffee for those who are uncultured During the meetings, they discuss how to make the world a better (and more polite) place. Bamboo and Sneaks started the group and are happy to welcome anyone in. There are a few rules, however:
Everyone is welcome.
No stealing from other Stuffies. Stealing things like coffee from humans= no problem.
You have to attend every meeting to become a member.
You can only say rude things when things are rudely said to you.
No taking over countries, the world, or the universe without permission.
I bet you can already guess who is NOT part of this club. Yup, that’s right- Yeti. She is 100 million % uninterested. And Taco is also unenthusiastic about it. They’d both rather do whatever they want and party all night long no matter how many friends are trying to sleep nearby. Fajita currently has a temporary membership for 2 reasons. One- they are often “out of town” and can’t go to the meetings. Two- they really struggle with Rule #4. It could be because they live with Yeti, but it also could be that it can be so much fun to say rude things and see what reaction happens. (What’s interesting about this to me is that every single time Fajita tries this, it results in extra volunteer hours with Jicama and some additional meditation about serenity and balance. Maybe they’ll learn someday?)
They’ve been particularly rude and antagonistic lately. Maybe it’s the heat?) I decided it was time to take them to a Low Ropes Course. Ropes courses help people work together and build teams. However, you see them here swinging back & forth at the Nitro Crossing. When told that the goal was to get from one platform to the other, they responded with “Who cares? This is more fun!” and continued for another 10 minutes. I decided to let it go and plan the next challenge.
For this Life Walk, you’re supposed to use the ropes to help you cross the cable. And help each other as you cross (after all, it’s about working as a team). Taco and Yeti started to meet the challenge. Fajita decided to stay at the tree and jump up and down as high as they could. (Not pictured here- the jumps where Fajita landed on the heads of their friends’. Taco flew away, but Yeti landed on her head. She was very unhappy about it and said some things many people would regret.
And here you see them on the Spider Web. The way this activity works, you’re supposed to go safely through the net without touching any of the strings. You’re also supposed to go one at at time to help your friends out. Instead my friends stood directly on the web and bounced up and down. They had fun getting flung off into the forest from the bungee cord & then repeating endlessly.
This is the Swinging Log. You’re all supposed to get on it so that no body parts are in contact with the ground. (Great- they did that!) And then you’re supposed to stay balanced on it, count to 10, and then calmly get down. My friends, on the other hand, decided to swing the log back and forth as hard as they could in the hopes of knocking everyone else off the log. In their ideal world, this would happen while simultaneously launching one or more of them into outer space.
And then my friends took off. They heard there was a random collection of wonderful items in a building called the Art Shack. Sure enough, they started taking things off the shelf and playing with them (uninvited, of course.) Fajita had some speed races around the room on the blender, Yeti tried to break the scale, and Taco was unusually calm. I think he was saving up energy for some mischeif at dinner (rumor was- tacos were on the menu).
Well, my friends had a wonderful time. And I wish I could report that they were a kinder, more polite, more trustworthy group after our experiences. That would be a lie. Better luck next time!