Sometimes I wonder why my passions and interests have coalesced around diversity, race, and respect. All I have to do is look back at how I spent my summers as a child. First, let me say that I grew up in nearly an all-white middle class community in Armonk, New York (the site of IBM’s headquarters). My dad was a professor at New York University (NYU) and my mom stayed home to raise me and my three siblings.
From the age of 1 to 10, I was privileged to attend NYU Camp on Lake Sebago in Suffern, New York. At Lake Sebago, I had the run of the camp since my dad spent part of each day teaching students who attended the camp. The students, majoring in Physical Education, Health, Recreation, and Dance, adopted me in a way. I hung, ate, and played with them. Amongst other things, I learned how to swim, play badminton, make a lanyard, and square dance. NYU camp was very diverse, with a large contingent of both male and female international students. Also, there was a sizable number of African-American students, many of them courtesy of the GI Bill. Looking back, NYU broadened and diversified my world.
At 11 years of age, I started attending Camp Dudley, the oldest camp for boys in the U.S. At the time, I did not know just how fortunate I was to spend 8 weeks of my summer at this beautiful, serene camp on Lake Champlain in Westport, New York. I do now. Recently, I visited Camp Dudley with my wife. While there, I got to “go back in time” and talk with a number of campers. The neat thing about Dudley is that it is far from a sports camp; rather, there is something for everyone. The highlight of my visit was delivering a sermon at their Sunday Chapel Service.
My sermon focused on Dudley’s motto, “The Other Fellow First.” As I preached to about 500 campers and guests, I shared how the Dudley motto has stuck with me all these years. Specifically, when I think about the Dudley motto, there are three parts that were ingrained in me each and every day:
Part One: Put the other fellow or other person first. This might mean listening before speaking, doing a favor for a camper you didn’t know, or simply being humble.
Part Two: It did NOT matter if the other fellow happened to be of a different race, color, culture, social class, sexuality, age, or ability. You put the other fellow first, period. That was it; no exceptions.
Part Three: Dudley has a strong spiritual component, with hymn sings on Sunday night, vespers every other night of the week, and chapel talks at the start of each day. It was in this context that we learned it was not enough to simply put the other fellow first, and just tolerate him. Rather, we needed to actually put him first in our hearts. That meant showing respect and being there for him.
In recent weeks, much is being made of the importance of conversations about race and respect for each other, and how we can all do better. I agree, and yet, I believe that experience is our best teacher. And many of those experiences that teach us something valuable about diverse cultures, religions, and races can be traced to our childhood. In my case, NYU Camp and Camp Dudley taught me lifelong lessons about diversity and inclusion at a time when they were the last things on my mind.