LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth |
CAMP Matters |
| by Murray Archibald |
| A Pattern of Change
Sometimes we can look back over our lives and see patterns emerging in ourselves, our lives, our Take the rainbow for instance. Back before Easter I was working with a group of people from Epworth United Methodist Church to create a giant rainbow banner woven from multi-colored ribbons. Someone in the group asked me how I had designed the sequence of the colors and I had to explain that I had no choice. Yes, I selected the individual colors but when it came to putting them in a proper order, there was no choice. All I needed was a starting point and a direction. Order is inherent in a spectrum. 2008 is the 18th season for CAMP Rehoboth. Over the years I've referred many times to the fact that Rehoboth Beach was originally developed as a Methodist Church campground and that knowledge of that fact actually played a role in the creation of the name for the CAMP Rehoboth we know today. The funny thing for me is that back in the 1940s my grandfather was one of the founders of a Methodist Church campground in Georgia. Our "camps" may be a little different in purpose, but there it is perhapsan emerging pattern? As I sit writing this column at my desk in the CAMP Rehoboth Community Center I'm surrounded by the exciting and comforting noise of men and machinery working to build the new wing of the CAMP Rehoboth Community Center and I can't help but think back to the founding o No matter the time passed, however, I can clearly see that the pattern for what is happening in and around CAMP Rehoboth today was all contained in its original concept. Much like an egg that contains the DNA of the creature that will be born from it, the original vision for CAMP Rehoboth has served as a blueprint for the growth and development of the organizationeven when we were too immersed in its day-to-day workings to notice. From my perspective, CAMP Rehoboth is becoming what it was always meant to be. Human beings like patterns. We surround ourselves with them. Patterns exist in our daily routinesin our eating and sleeping habits. Patterns exist in nature and in the structures of our lives: in tiles, in bricks, in siding, on our carpets, and in the flooring we place in our homes and workplaces. Patterns can be seen on the materials we wear on our bodies and use to decorate our windows and walls. Patterns add interest and order to our lives, but they can also become prisons for uslocking us into old habits and the tired repetition and eternal human cry of "that's the way we've always done it." Changing the patterns in one's life is both exhilarating and frightening. On the one hand we want change, on the other we fear it. One of the reasons that Barack Obama has done so well in his election campaign is because he inspires us to change the world around usto break the patterns that the cynics among us would have us believe can never be broken. When CAMP Rehoboth was first started back in 1990, it was about making change in our community. Over the years it has become a part of the pattern of life in Rehoboth Beach. That's good certainly, but the price of success, if we are not careful, can also be a loss of creativity and a crippling fear of failure that results in never taking a chance on anything new. Everywhere I go these days I try to watch for the young leaders around us. As CAMP Rehoboth moves forward into the next stage of its development, we need to embrace change and we need to seek out the youthful energy we need to move the organization into a bright and hopeful future. As the new building rises, so do my spirits. Sure we're still raising money to pay for it, but I have seen what this community can do when challenged. I believe we are building a great place for the future of Rehoboth Beach. I know we've depended on our generous and wonderful community to get us to this point. That's one pattern I don't want to see change. * Photos: 1.) Epworth's rainbow ribbon banner, 2.)Steel rising on the new wing of the Community Center. Murray Archibald, Founder and President of the Board of Directors of CAMP Rehoboth, is an artist in Rehoboth Beach. Thank you to all the CAMP Rehoboth Community Center Volunteers for the period of March 7 - April 3. Tony Burns Paul Fessler Charlie Lee Michael Muller Steve Proctor Barb Ralph Mark Robinson Chris Sampson Women's Weekend Kathleen McCormick Katie Rogers Ruth Lamothe Anne Pikolas Barb Ralph Peg Green Cindy Johnson Barb Thompson Rainbow Thumb Club Matt Carey Ward Ellinger Rob Freeman Tony Ghigi Steve Hoult Bud Palmer Ken Reilly Tom White Murray Archibald, Founder and President of the Board of Directors of CAMP Rehoboth, is an artist in Rehoboth Beach. |
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LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth, Vol. 18, No. 03 April 04, 2008 |
family, and our world. Sometimes we have control over the patterns and sometimes they are simply the result of who we are and the world in which we live. Sometimes they are just the natural order of the universe around us.
f CAMP Rehoboth 18 years ago. Some days I feel like we started CAMP Rehoboth yesterday; on other days, like it was a lifetime ago.