LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth |
Dreaming The World: CAMP Project Action Commttee |
by Murray Archibald |
Starting a new millennium makes it hard to not think about the future. All our lives we've been wondering what life would be like in the year 2000and now it's here. I thought that after all the Y2K media blitz I'd be over it, but I have to confess I still get a little thrill of excitement every time I write the day's date. I look forward to experiencing Summer 2000, SUNDANCE 2000, LOVE 2000 and all the rest. I'm especially excited about the progress of CAMP Rehoboth as we enter this new decade. Early in January, a group of about twenty people gathered to participate in the first meeting of the CAMP Rehoboth Project Action Committee. The group has been developed to be our creative planning team and is open to all members of the community who wish to participate. We hope it will provide a place where ideas are exchanged, voices are heard, and where issues of concern to us all can be addressed. Perhaps the most important thing to come out of the January meeting was an overwhelming response to the need for a gay and lesbian Community Center. From the first year of CAMP Rehoboth, one of the long term goals has been the creation of such a center. In some ways, of course, the CAMP courtyard and office have served that purpose during the past decade, but now the needs have far outgrown the space and it's time to talk about growing. A Community Center would allow greatly expanded services available through CAMP Rehoboth on a year-round basis, as well as provide a focus for the many projects and issues that are important to us. Along with the Community Center, the discussion at the January meeting concerned support groups and social events for gay and lesbian youth, issues facing the elderly and the need for a gay and lesbian retirement center, women's health issues (and women's issues in general), non alcoholic events, organized social events and much more. Obviously, all of this is not going to happen right away. Every program takes time and energy and involved people to get it off the groundand usually money. The important thing is to get us all talking about these issues and to get us to set some realistic goals for making them happen. Ten years ago when we first started talking about CAMP Rehoboth, I was impatient, I wanted everything to happen at once. It has taken much of this past decade to make me realize that a little progress every year is all we have to dowe don't have to do it all at once. The important thing is that we have a goal, a direction in which to move. The Project Action Committee is designed to be the place where those goals are developedto be a place where dreams are born and turned into reality. If you want to have an active and creative place within our community, this is a good place to start. Another lesson that living in Rehoboth has taught me well is that the creation of something doesn't end with its conception. We can have a billion ideas but if we don't give them life, that's all they areideas and dreams. The idea for a painting is one thing, the execution another. The idea for a new business is one thing, the development and care of that business is another. Every idea worth doing involves effort of some kind or another. Learning to work creatively is about giving life to our ideas and our dreams, not just having them. I have great hopes that this group will provide the nutrients needed to give life to some or all of the projects we've discussedplus many more. At the January meeting I felt energized. I felt possibility awakening on every hand. Sometimes it is all too easy for me to get stuck in my own studio and to think that something is simpler if I just do it myself. But that attitude doesn't make for the growth of anything but my own workload. The excitement comes when we all join hands and really make something happen. Over the years, Steve and I have talked and written incessantly about the meaning of CAMP Rehoboth. CAMP is, if you remember, an acronym for Create A More Positive, in this case, Rehoboththough it could certainly be applied to other things like CAMP Family or CAMP World. Our very name has always acknowledged how important the word create is to the heart and soul of our efforts. One of the great things about being gay, for me, is the fact that our lives are already breaking the rules. We are already the worst thing that some people can think of to call us. Therefore, by embracing who we are, we are set free from the boundaries that our society would use to enslave us. It is, I think, one of the reasons gay and lesbian people are so creative. We have a different perspectivea different window through which to view the world. I say all of this again to stress how important the creative process is to our development and to the group that is forming to find creative solutions to the needs of our community. We need each and every voice. We need a wide variety of people who bring special talents and gifts to the creation process. I am excited and challenged by the work we are doing. I think we will be seeing the results of it for a long time to come. The next CAMP Rehoboth Project Committee meeting is scheduled for Thursday, February 10, downstairs at Epworth United Methodist Church, 20 Baltimore Avenue in Rehoboth. For more information, call CAMP at 302-227-5620. I hope to see you there. |
LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth, Vol. 10, No. 1, Feb. 4, 2000. |