By John-Paul Meenan

On a cold and rainy Saturday at the end of October, the guys at Our Lady Seat of Wisdom Academy donned their outdoor gear, and headed to the boonies outside of the town of Arnprior, ON for a day of paintball. Now, for those of you who have never participated in this sport (as I had not before that Saturday), this is how it goes: You are given a rifle-looking device that shoots bullet-sized balls of paint at high velocity; a visor protects your face and eyes, and, hopefully, your clothing protects your body (although some of the guys came out with welts). Then, over a series of games, you are divided into two teams, and fire away through the obstacle course, until one team is eliminated.

The day was wet, muddy and, on the whole, a lot of fun (even with the masks fogging up). For me, it was an eye-opening experience to what war must be like. Unlike the movies, the bullets did hit me, and often; at one point, I raised my head slightly above the haystack behind which I was hiding, and got a paintball between the eyes. I rarely ‘lived’ very long, with the exception of the last game, when I was the last man standing on my team (partly since I had so many bullets left over!).

But it was all in good fun, with a lot of that endless male energy channeled into healthy competition. Afterwards, we compared stories, good shots and bad ones, injuries and strategies. It may not be my cup of tea every weekend (I prefer a good hike or bike ride), but, hey, I’ll do most things once, especially if they involve camaraderie, fellowship, blasting away at my students (and they at me) and a glass of dark ale at the end of the day.

John Paul Meenan teaches theology and science at Our Lady Seat of Wisdom Academy