From Randy Hyde, Chair of the CBF 2008 General Assembly Steering Committee
Growing up in northeast Arkansas, our family traveled to Memphis at least a couple times a year. It was “our” city. Our TV stations emanated from Memphis, and we had more in common with west Tennessee folk than we did with those from other sections of our own state.
Memphis has a world-renowned zoo, a Triple-A professional baseball team (an affiliate of the world champion St. Louis Cardinals), several colleges and seminaries, Beale Street - where the Blues were born - and is famous for a certain fellow with long sideburns, shaky legs, and a curled lip who has made more money in death than he ever did in life.
But the one image that stands out most is the bridge. Back in the day, it was what is now called the “old bridge,” and connected the low-lying, silt-covered, river-bottom land of east Arkansas and the “BluffCity.” Needless to say, it was not there when Hernando de Soto crossed the Mississippi River as the first European to discover Arkansas, but historical yore tells us he is buried somewhere beneath the murky water in the bridge’s shadow.
There’s a “new” bridge now. At least that’s what we call it, though it was completed in 1973. As you cross it from the west, it gives you a quick view of the Pyramid, MudIsland and St. Jude’s Hospital.
What is it about bridges that captures our imaginations? Perhaps it is that bridges open up new territories, unite that which once was divided, and give us the means of discovering new places and taking us where we’ve never been before. Bridges enable us to embrace new worlds we have yet to discover.
This will be the theme of our 2008 General Assembly… Embrace the World: Building Bridges. So put on your hard hat, come to Memphis next June, and let’s build new bridges together. It will be fun to see where our efforts take us, don’t you think?