LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth |
CAMP Matters |
byMurray Archibald |
Bits of Gold at the Rainbow's End
There is an old Irish legend that involves leprechauns, rainbows and a pot of gold. From my perspective, however, leprechauns are not all that different from fairies and perhaps because we are surrounded by an abundance of rainbows, I found myself recently considering just what is meant by that proverbial pot of gold. My conclusion was that riches come in many formshard though that may be for our capitalistic culture to understandand that gold has long been associated with wisdom. Though I do not claim to be a wise man, I have gleaned a few "bits of gold" from our CAMP Rehoboth experiences over the years, and as we come to the end of another year I thought that now might be a good time to examine some of them. Real Growth Takes Time Being patient is not something that I did well when I was young. Maybe that's true for all of us, but I can only speak from my own experiences. Even in the early years of CAMP Rehoboth I was constantly frustrated because I wanted it to happen all at once. Looking back on it now, I realize that the idea of CAMP Rehoboth was fully formed at the time of its birth. Like the "big bang" at the creation of the universe, it contained all the elements it would ever need, except timeand time changes everything. Creation and evolution are part of the same process, except that one comes in the blink of an eye while the other is slow, steady, and dependent upon time, environment, and the processes of life. Even after all these years, I can still sometimes find myself stressing out about all that needs to be done, and yet at the same time I know that the success of CAMP Rehoboth, like most real successes, has come from its slow and steady growth. Our Sundance benefit (which predates CAMP Rehoboth by several years) is a perfect example. 17 years ago at the first Sundance we cleared $6,400. This year's totals are close to $200,000. 17 years ago we could not possibly have done what we did this year. Time has made the difference. Creativity Is Endless (and there are many "right" solutions) Most of us accept that we are creative beings, but I have come to believe that many of us only use a small part of our true creative capabilities. Over and over again I hear people say, "I'm not creative" or "I can't do that." It's true, of course, that each of us has certain inborn talentsthings at which we excelbut every single one of us has the creative ability to solve problems, to think, to reason, to play, to evolve, and to grow. The trick to thinking creatively is in fully accepting our creative nature and believing with all our heart, soul, body, and mind that we have but to ask the question in order to find the answer. That which we consciously seek, we find. In all things there are many right answers, which is why we human beings can have so much trouble getting along with one another. A good leader, I think, tries to balance the creative freedom of others with the goals, vision and focus of the organization. Like a river made from countless small streams, much of the success of CAMP Rehoboth has come because so many people are channeling their creativity into making things flow together. The hardest part sometimes comes when we are not able to use the creative and good suggestions and ideas of others simply because a different choice has been made. That doesn't mean that the ideas are any less deserving, or, for that matter, that creativity should even be judged by the rigid, win/lose system that rules so much of our culture's "reality show" thinking. Despite its occasional value as entertainment, reality programming does not seem to be an advancement of creativity. Setting Priorities This one seems obvious, and yet the more creative we are, the more easily we can become ensnared in the very acts of our creation. Quite frequently the idea of somethingthat "big bang" moment I spoke of earlieris the easy part of creation. Like raising children (I imagine, since I have not been privileged to have that experience) the conception is the easy part and might be viewed, by some, as the most fun. But the real satisfaction to a parent (I would also imagine) is seeing what the child becomes. That, of course, is the part that takes the most hard work and the part that is most susceptible to environment and evolution. Life in CAMP Rehoboth, especially in the summertime, is around-the-clock deadlines, events, and activities. What makes it work, I think, is that we have learned to allot only a certain amount of time to each thing on the calendar. If we have two weeks to do a project, we do it in two weeks. If we only have a day, we do it in a day. As Kathy Weir and I were setting up the CAMP Rehoboth table at the recent Beebe Medical Foundation's Thanksgiving Ball, someone commented that we must have been working on the project for a long time. Both of us kind of rolled our eyes at each other, knowing that our busy calendars had severely limited the available time we had to work on the project. What made it work was not struggling over the idea but simply seeing it and doing it as quickly as possible, and to the best of our abilities within the designated time frame. Sometimes the best ideas are the ones that require the least amount of creative effort. Learning to trust one's creative instinct is quite often the most important step in the creative process. Living in the Heart No discussions of anything I do would be complete without bringing up the heart: it's one of my favorite themes to paint. The heart has become the symbol for our Community Center, and it's the subject of our Heart of the Community art auction every spring. Living from the heart is the simplest of concepts and yet can be the most difficult to explain. Putting the heart into words is sometimes the easiest way to destroy it, because in our efforts to explain the mystery and the miracle of the heart we end up by putting it in a boxtrying to make it fit the rules of a culture built on money, power, fame, and not love. Love knows no bounds and cannot be limited. It is, I believe, the most powerful tool of the creative mind. Though we cannot always explain it, we knowwe recognizepeople who live in the heart. The heart is opposite of ego, it gives instead of taking. The heart accepts loss and failure as a part of life, even as it rejoices in success. The heart listens. The heart values truth. The heart sets us free and does not imprison. It seeks peace and unity instead of war and alienation. In our society many of our religious institutions believe they own the rights to the heart but, alas, human institutions are as susceptible to failure as the humans who built them. Revelation and vision are powerful expressions of the heart, but the moment they become rigid, heartless law, is the moment their life begins to drain away. Life cannot exist without the heart...or without reason, for that matter...and the courage to use them. And that, seems to bring us all right back home...to a tin man, a scarecrow, and a lion...somewhere over the rainbow. |
LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth, Vol. 14, No. 15 November 24, 2004 |