“We don’t see the world as it is; we see it as we dream it could be. And in that gap lives every possibility.” [Iki]
It was the summer of 1963, my first day at Camp Forest Hills, nestled in the foothills of the White Mountains. I’m the scrawny boy dribbling a basketball alone on a basketball court while other campers are lined up outside the dining hall, waiting for the cook to ring the large bell calling people into breakfast.
I dribbled the basketball. It calmed me. The release of the ball and its return to the palm of my hand, over and over. I didn’t attempt a single shot. I only dribbled left, dribbled right, dribbled standing still. Lost in the sound and the touch of the ball, I was startled when a voice next to me said, “Hi, I’m Johnny Wallace. Welcome to Camp Forest Hills.” He reached out his hand for me to shake. “What’s your name?”
I responded meekly, “Kiffer.”
“I’m a counselor for the younger kids. It won’t take long to get to know people, Kiffer. I’m looking forward to spending more time with you.”
A simple handshake, a simple connection, was like the sun breaking through the clouds.
I loved summer camp, the camaraderie, the sports, the campfires, the singing, the drama of spraining my ankle and going to the infirmary to get taped, even the chores, cleaning, prepping food, rolling the clay tennis court, the constant banter, helping the younger campers, and crafts. (Really, how many boondoggle keychains does the world need?) There were kids of color sharing my daily life. We put aside all the stereotypes we held of each other and hiked, canoed, sang, and played sports together. Our differences were suspended during the summer because we lived together. We belonged to the same tribe.
I am haunted by the question, why do we always want more money and things? Obviously, this highly structured camp environment was not real life, but it gave me a taste of living a simple life in a cooperative way .
Maybe our drive towards innovation is an evolutionary trait of humans who are otherwise naked and have no other defense except our minds.
What is abundantly clear is that while technology has advanced to the point where we can end hunger, prevent epidemics, and work towards ending violence, we haven’t developed the social maturity to integrate those efforts into the basic elements of a happy life.
There were times in the sixties and early seventies when I thought we were getting there. We stood up to the avarice of capitalism and the imperialism of the Vietnam War. We worked to bring down the walls that separated us by gender, creed, color, income, education, and sexual preference. Life for some of us was moving beyond “getting as much as we can.” But the pushback grew more forceful as technology progressed. Our world became more stratified. The isolation caused by social media has damaged the social infrastructure that enables us to form relationships. In isolation, it is hard to find purpose in life.
As ludicrous as it may seem for my experience at a summer camp to serve as a model for how to live, it gave me a bite of the apple. I experienced what it felt like to belong without the nagging feeling that if some calamity befell me, I would be left behind.
I imagine living in a sea of diversity, old and young, gay and straight, and everything in between. Younger families would be able to afford housing, have their children attend great public schools, and a social infrastructure would deliver health care, child care, elder care, and emergency care. Healthy, delicious local food would be available for everyone. Artists could sustain themselves through their art rather than at checkout at Walmart. Our libraries would be cathedrals of knowledge. We would be free of the electric grid, generating solar, geothermal, water, and wind cooperatively. The bounty of our natural resources would be ecologically shared, not exploited.
This is not a fight to return to the way things were supposed to be. It is a fight to define our future in a cooperative way. The MAGA forces know this, which is why they are doing everything they can to divide and distract us. Yet in their effort lies our opportunity. The harder they work to divide us, the stronger our momentum to come together becomes. We are developing a deeper sense of belonging. Having felt it, even at a summer camp, the understanding doesn’t go away. It becomes the light we need to find our way forward.
“My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together.” [Desmond Tutu]
Christopher “Kiffer” Sikes lives in Northfield and is the founder of Common Capital, a local nonprofit financial institution.