I spent a few days at the beach this week with five other priests, thanks to the loan of a house from some very generous lay people. In Washington we speak of going to the beach. But in nearby Baltimore they “We’re goin’ down-e-ocean.” In think in Jersey they speak of going to the shore, as in Jersey shore. At any rate, thank God for a restful time, lots of long walks along the shoreline, interesting discussions and good food. In fact, according to the Scripture story of the Road to Emmaus, Walking, talking and dining, is an image for the Kingdom.
Just a brief thought that occurred to me today as I walked, along the water, this time alone. I began my walk, right in the center of Bethany Beach Delaware, just down from the center of the boardwalk. The beach we rather crowded, lots of people, chairs, umbrellas, kids running back and forth into the water.
As I headed north walking right on the littoral (where water meets land), I noticed the crowd thinned out quite quickly, so that, within a hundred yards of where the boardwalk ended the beach became quite empty, just a few folks here and there.
Why, I wondered did people huddle together so? It would seem that people would prefer to spread out a little, would want privacy, and might be willing to walk a little to get that space and privacy. Instead, they huddled together in a crowded eight block area of beach along the Bethany Boardwalk.
It occurred to me, that despite out often expressed need for spaciousness and privacy, this image of people huddling together had important lessons to teach.
The chief and uniting lesson is that ultimately people need people. Huddling close together meant that there were others to provide not only company but also safety. There were plenty of life guards, and if any trouble arose, plenty of people nearby to help. Where there are people, there are also many conveniences near at hand. There were food vendors up on the nearby boardwalk and also those selling beach gear. There was a free town Internet signal in the air. Public Bathrooms were also nearby as were as was a safety station and police presence. A lot of kids, who had just met that day, were also playing together and teaching each other to surf, ride boogie boards or build sand castles.
A simple lesson really but somehow beautifully painted for me at Bethany Beach, people need people. People benefit from other people. People take care of people and provide necessary services, protection and company. Space and solitude have their place, but it really is more our instinct, even in this wide open country to huddle together in cities. For all our complaints about crowds, in the end it’s good to have other people in good numbers close at hand.
It was all a painting of what Scripture says: Woe to the solitary man! For if he should fall, he has no one to lift him up. (Ecclesiastes 4:11).
Beach Baby from Tom Stillwell on Vimeo.
Awesome, cute, funny, hilarious and very thoughtful…Thanks for taking us back down memory lane…food for thought and not for hips…like those deep fried pickles we had last week on the boardwalk at Ocean City…and I wish the Churches could be jam packed like those beaches were, it was like a tight squeeze, no parking space, one hour wait for your food at the restaurants, half and hour circling for a parking space to the Sea Food restaurants…So Bethany beach sounds like somewhere I would have to visit soon…Thanks again for sharing!!
Yes, Bethany is just a little north of Ocean City and is more quiet. It insists on being a quiet family resort. Ocean city has all the high rises and a strong youth culture which makes it both more crowded and a bit more rowdy. So, for those reasons I tend to favor bethany, but Ocean City has a lot of amenities we sometimes drive down to enjoy.
As time has gone on in my own life, I think I’ve observed how true this seems to be, at least for me. I think my relationship with God has grown along with my sense of needing others, whereas before it was a me and God thing, and I thought a solitary loneliness was good and holy.
However, I sometimes have trouble balancing this insight with those saints who do appear to be solitary, or even monks whose vocation is described as “God alone.” Sometimes, I really don’t know, when considering this sort of thing, which one it is, but my sense has been that there is something good about the incarnational aspect of living in communion with God among others, where God’s presence is concrete and raw, in the messiness of life.
Msgr., just to clarify: in Philly and Jersey, the proper term is “down the shore,” in Delaware, it’s “down the beach,” in Baltimore, it’s “downee ayshun.” The word “to” is omitted in all three cases. It took me a while to figure it out after I met my Delawarian wife and she kept talking about having gone down the beach, her uncle’s place down the beach, etc.
You look swell, Msgr.! God bless you. …I am quite impressed that my pastor has established a yearly routine to renew old friendships. For example, on the Feast of the Epiphany, he hosts a gathering of clergy friends for Evening Prayer and supper; each February, he vacations in a time-share condo with priest buddies in Cancun; and each August, he serves as Catholic priest for the Chautauqua Institution gated community in New York state. It makes me smile to see how much he thrives on these events!
That’s a good picture of you, Monsignor. Of course, we laity can’t help but look at the picture and wonder, “Should he be wearing his clerics?”–or whatever they are called. As a solitary man, I have more than once read those words, “Woe to the solitary man! For if he should fall, he has no one to lift him up. (Ecclesiastes 4:11),” and trembled. God can have mercy even on the solitary man. Hermits have been held in esteem by the Church.
I’m a big believer in clerics and wear them most all the time, but not at the beach. Even priests need a little down time….
I would suppose also that a priest would sometimes not where his clerics from a sense of prudence that he must have when dealing with a populace that has been wildly deceived.
at least the shorts were black…
Did you find any boys trying to fill a hole with the ocean?
I’m glad to see you got a little chance to relax this summer and enjoy the weather and ocean, Msgr. Pope. By the way, I enjoyed your article on church organs the other day. My Mom is an organist at her parish Catholic Church. It was neat to watch the video and hear the different sounds of the different pipes. Yikes! Summer is winding down. I need a trip to the beach.
This pleasant post reminds me one of the Population Research Institute’s videos, which says that people make wealth. The way to get people out of poverty has always been to have more people, and more people helping people.
I wonder how much of the clustering together was because they’d just watched Shark Week on Discovery Channel.
aka Shark Food?
……..oh and forgot to add: does your beach crowd example include crowding during Mass? Don’tcha just love how some touch feely priest encourages everyone to group together up front in the pews within hand-holding distance or something during a weekday Mass?
I’ve heard more than a few admonishments from the pulpit about “I don’t understand why people sit off by themselves during Mass.” So I’ll leave you with a few reasons: People smell: Too much perfume or poor hygiene; People talk and make unnecessary noises (rummaging around in their luggage….uh…purse). People want to hold my hand and sway to the muzak. Strangers want to hug me. People break wind.
Go ahead, add to my list!
Woe is me; I struggle to be with people. I must force myself to be with people. Yes I am married and very comfortable being with my immediate family. I function in society very well, but would prefer not to be with people. I cover it up. But a lot of times I have to work hard at it. I struggled with this for many years, as far as I can remember. I am now fifty. Now I accept that I must have some condition. I do not hate people. But I just get anxiety around people even at large family gatherings. The only thing that keeps me going and dealing with this is my faith in God and his known love. I have often thought of just taking the easy way out and just locking myself away from everyone. I really really enjoy being by myself. Don’t feel sad for me, for God has not forgotten me. But Ecclesiastes 4:11 is so true. With Gods aid I must lift myself up. And I know this is all just tempory that once I move on from this life this hardship will no longer exist.