To Be Continued

So I'm leaving Locust Grove last night after a Costumed Interpreter meeting.  We have been going through huge changes in the CI program, and it has been very painful.  For awhile, I didn't know if I even wanted to be an interpreter anymore, but since I have so much time and money invested in this, and because I love history and Locust Grove so much, I decided to give the new program a year and see how it went.

At times I've had to choke back tears, and many times I was unsuccessful.  At times, I've choked on my words, and other times, they have spewed out like so much bitter bile.  I have not liked the changes.  I have not agreed with many of them.  I have resented the people brought in as "experts" to tell us what we needed to do to improve our program and our characterizations of the people we portray.  I felt insulted and diminished.  I have had deep seated feelings of betrayal and, I admit, jealousy, and it has been hard for me to be nice.

But I have continued on, hoping it would get better, because I love Locust Grove.

So anyway, last night as I'm leaving, I'm walking out with Emily behind some of the younger people now in charge when I had an epiphany.  It was seriously in a split second that I came to the realization that will take me a minute to articulate, but bear with me while I try and explain it.

What I realized was this:

For a thing, anything, to continue, it has to be passed on.  The people in charge have to nurture younger people in loving and caring for this thing.  The people in charge have to make the thing worth investing resources in.  The people in charge have to let the younger people have some kind of ownership in the thing or else there will be nobody to pick up the mantle when the people in charge can no longer be in charge.

So for the younger people to be interested in the thing and want to continue investing their own resources in this thing, they have to want to be there.  They have to see value in this thing.  They have to have some kind of ownership in this and they have to envision themselves in its future.  For that to happen, the people in charge have to yield some of their ownership of the thing, to give up some of their control, and when they do, the new owners of this thing might see it in a different light with new possibilities.  The younger people may want to try something different or stop doing something the same way it has been done for years.  They might want to tweak something a little or completely overhaul it.  Just because their vision is different from the vision of the older people, doesn't mean that it's wrong; it just means it's different.

But what it does mean is that there is a vision of the future, and this thing is in that vision, which means it will continue.

So, do I like the changes at Locust Grove?  Not particularly.  Do I think that the implementations of the new changes were handled poorly?  Oh, my yes.  Very, very poorly.  But with some perspective and last night's epiphany, I see that the changes are good in a way because they are creating ownership and investment in Locust Grove by its next generation of caretakers.  And that can only mean one thing...Locust Grove is "to be continued."