Summer Romance
Over the last few summers we’ve watched a new generation of Rehoboth lovers find their way to us, and I’ve really enjoyed the fresh energy and creativity they bring with them. One of them, Josh Levie, has gotten involved in the work of CAMP Rehoboth and is using his many skills on our Program Committee and on Love 2011.
At a recent meeting of the Love 2011 committee, Josh was talking about his beach house and the 20+ housemates and friends who were in town for the Memorial Day weekend. As he talked, his words peeled off like a thin layer of gauze and settled on top of my own early Rehoboth experiences. I too remember summer weekends when the beach house was full of friends, and we traveled as a big happy family from one place to another.
Sometimes I forget why we came here in the first place. Sure it was the ocean and the sun and the excitement of getting away every weekend, but most of all it was the friends who shared it with us. We had a great love for one another; every weekend was a new adventure; every weekend was a kind of platonic summer romance.
Josh made me realize how little everything has changed in a quarter of a century. Oh sure, there were no smartphones and iPads and prices were a lot cheaper, but the reason for being here is certainly the same. Just take a look at Baltimore Avenue on a weekend evening in the summertime—it’s all about friends.
I have to confess, I’m almost a little envious of the carefree visitors on our street, laughing and strolling from place to place every weekend. Now Rehoboth is my home and my work—I love it, but sometimes fail to appreciate or remember the rich experience of how and why we came to be in this particular place and time.
No one who lived through the first decade of the AIDS epidemic will ever forget the devastating loses we incurred in the days before the new drugs started saving lives. So many of the friends we once strolled up and down Baltimore Avenue with are now remembered in stones laid along that same street. Perhaps that was our turning point, the time when our childhood ended—the time when our summer romance ended.
That sounds depressing, doesn’t it? But it’s not meant to be. The first blush of romance always passes, and the honeymoon turns into a marriage. That takes work, no matter what it is: a relationship, a cause, an event, or an organization like CAMP Rehoboth.
My conversation with Josh, reminded me that what brought us here in the first place is still a vital part of our lives. It is the foundation of our Rehoboth experience, the first layer of all that has followed over the years. Our first summer romance has blossomed into a full, rich lifetime filled with a deep commitment to this community we call home.
The last line of the CAMP Rehoboth Community Center’s vision statement is: “The Center is the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and trangendered community’s contribution to creating a home for all.” The CAMP Rehoboth logo is a house with a heart in it—which is, as we see it, a home.
A home is a place where we feel safe. A home is a place where we live—where we relax and find refreshment. This concept of “home” has always been the center stone in the foundation of the CAMP Rehoboth philosophy. Our mission calls us to: “...promote community well-being on all levels; to foster the development of community groups; to develop community space; to promote human and civil rights; to work against prejudice and discrimination; to lessen tensions among the community at large; and to help foster the economic growth of the area.”
On Memorial Day weekend, U.S. Senator Chris Coons spoke to a crowd at the CAMP Rehoboth Community Center. In his speech, he used the phrase “a slow steady march toward equality,” and went on to say “equality is the soul of liberty.” This steady march forward is about building a safe and inclusive world for everyone. Until there is full equality and respect for everyone no matter our race, religion, age, gender, or sexual orientation we have not made a home for all.
All over the world right now, there is a growing call for equality. In the Middle East, country after country is experiencing a great groundswell against tyranny. Like people everywhere, all they want is freedom, and peace, and a safe place to call home.
So how did I get from Rehoboth Beach to the Middle East?
That’s easy! Once we start the process of building strong, safe, and inclusive communities, we cannot stop with just our own little street. Our planet and its people need us to be always mindful of our home and how we care for it.
I said earlier that our “summer romance” with Rehoboth and the dear friends we made here, was the first layer in what grew up to be CAMP Rehoboth. Without those first years of romance, we would never have developed the connections needed to build a home at all.
Enjoy the summer, who knows were it will lead.
Murray Archibald, Founder and President of the Board of Directors of CAMP Rehoboth, is an artist in Rehoboth Beach.
Crowd at the Sen. Coons event at CAMP Rehoboth.