Chautuaqua (CHQ) Journal #1

I am in heaven right now, although on the map it is called Chautauqua, NY. (For brevity's sake and to give my keyboarding skills less of a workout, I am going to say CHQ instead.) If you have never heard of it, all I can say is that it is like sleep-over camp for grown ups, only way better. CHQ started as a summer lecture program for Methodist Sunday School teachers. The program was held in a small town on a lake in upstate New York (Chautauqua), and the organizers brought in interesting lecturers to illuminate the listeners' lives.

More than 125 years later, the town is a gated community for 9 weeks in the summer. Lectures are held in a huge covered ampitheater, instead of the park by the lake, with audiovisual equipment out the wazoo, plus classes in a huge variety of topics, from personal finances to digital photography to yoga and zumba and conversational French for beginners. If you feel like vegging out, just go down to one of the three swim areas, or take a walk along the lake, or sit and listen to enterprising young musicians playing chamber music at the central plaza, an open violin case in front of them, seeded with a few hopeful greenbacks.

Because CHQ started as a place for Sunday School teachers, the spiritual aspect to the place is still integral to its identity. There are numerous "denominational houses" on the grounds who provide housing and a refuge for their followers, plus the interfaith service in the Amp every morning. In the last ten years, there has been a further expansion of ecumenism in the form of the Abrahamic Initiative (now a Project), with a goal of bringing new understanding among peoples of the three traditions -- Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Sunday night, for example, there was a vesper service that was put together by three young persons (one from each tradition), including calls to prayer, and other worship elements from all three traditions. It was very moving. At least it is a start. How can we figure out how to get along if we don't know anything about the others?

Don't forget to bring the kids. There is a day camp for kids from 7 to ll and a half-day option of daycare for littler ones, all designed to give the parents a chance to enjoy some of the less kid-friendly programming, like lectures on the cosmos, or a few words from Sandra Day O'Connor or Jessie Jackson, or (as happened yesterday) Ken Burns of the PBS series on National Parks fame.

Central to the town is the plaza, a wide open green area with a fountain in the center. The library is at one end and the administrative office building at the other. Then there is the Post Office, Bookstore, Refectory, and a number of stores. Don't forget the kiosk where those of us who are espresso-dependent can get their grande latte.

Wander around the town in your spare time and revel in the variety of Victorian architecture. "Life is a porch" is a favorite t-shirt saying. Owners have spent a lot of time coming up with multicolor paint schemes and elaborate floral plantings. Outdoor sculptures sprout in the most unexpected places, and you never know when you will stumble on to a little garden with a bench on which to rest your weary self and get back in touch with nature and the mystical aura of CHQ.

There is so much more to this place -- like opera and theater and student art and dance programs. There is an orchestra, comprised of off-season or retired symphony members, that performs once or twice a week. There is a movie theater and a golf course and a fitness center. Seriously, if you can't find something to do here...I just can't imagine that, actually.

I am in heaven. I fell in love with it 5 minutes after arriving and it has stayed that way for 10 years now. Before I went the first time, at the invitation of a couple of friends who seemed to keep going back every year, I said to my husband, "I just don't want this to be the last place I ever go to for a vacation." Well, it hasn't been the only place. Although I have gone other places as well, I have only missed one summer in CHQ since that first visit.

It looks like I will not be able to come next year, because of some other things going on that need to take precedence. I can tell you that I will miss it and will eagerly anticipate my return in 2012.

Heaven on earth.