Is it eutopia or utopia?
I’m no scholar. But in Greek, “utopia” translates to “no place,” which can only be found in books. I’m not talking about that one.
My topic is on “eutopia,” a “good place” where happiness flows and everything is almost perfect.
Impossible?
Not if you know where to go.
Let me tell you about the Chautauqua Institution, an oasis in Southwestern New York, just below Lake Erie and a short drive from Niagara Falls. On another 500 acres—across the road—feature two golf courses.
When you arrive, park your car. The 250-acre pedestrian community hugs the shore of a lake that’s 16 miles long and a mile wide.
Be sure to pack your walking shoes. Red brick paths—under a leafy canopy of trees—will lead you from one happy place to another. Every stroll is as if you’re wandering through an endless flower garden and lush parks. Even the dogs being walked seemed to wag their tails more.
Along the way, expect to hear people chattering and laughing on porches of quaint houses. Even the architecture of the new houses makes them look as if they’ve been there a long, long time.
And if you are hungry, you won’t be disappointed. From ice cream cones to smash burgers to ethnic food trucks to fine dining in elegant settings, it’s all there.
I’m always hungry for my next book. For me, browsing in the well-stocked bookstore and in the stately library is a “feast” in itself.
The “good” thing about the 150-year-old Chautauqua Institution is that you can do as much or as little as you wish during the summer’s nine weeks of different themes. Courtesy of friends, Erroll and Elaine, we were there for the final week. The focus was Rising Together: Our Century of Creativity and Collaboration with Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.
Marsalis, winner of a Pulitzer Prize for Music, speaks as well as he plays the trumpet and composes symphonies.
Chautauqua was founded in
1874 by the Rev. John Heyl Vincent, a Methodist minister, and Ohio
inventor/manufacturer Lewis Miller. Miller’s
daughter, Mina, married another inventor, Thomas Edison. Today, the curriculum
is a smorgasbord of cultural learning opportunities.
In addition to the ever-gracious hospitality, making new friends, the lively breakfast-table discussions and simply absorbing the near-perfect environment, two of my favorites were:
The Rev. Dr. Otis Moss III
Moss, the senior pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, spoke each morning. The late columnist Lewis Grizzard quipped that God listened to the Rev. Billy Graham, but He taped the Rev. Jimmy Swaggart.
I suspect the Lord has a library of Otis Moss tapes, too. If there was an Olympics for preaching, the reverend would own a stack of gold medals. He was as powerful in the pulpit as I’ve ever heard. And I told him so.
Homeboy Industries
At first, I didn’t know what to expect.
Homeboy Industries. What is that?
In the words of Father Greg Boyle, founder: “What began in 1988 as a way of improving the lives of former gang members in East Los Angeles, Homeboy Industries has evolved into the largest gang intervention, rehab, and re-entry program in the world.”
Hold on to this thought.
On another day, I will tell you about the four ex-gang members who shared stories about their earlier lives on the crime-infested streets and in crime-infested prisons. And then they explained their productive lives of today. If you don’t believe in miracles, study what Father Boyle is accomplishing.
This was our second trip to Southwestern New York’s “good” place. And now, I am convinced that there’s another spelling for the description of the community/campus on the shore of that picturesque lake.
Eutopia can also be spelled C-H-A-U-T-A-U-Q-U-A.
dnesmith@cninewspapers.com
