“Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?”
— Mary Oliver (1935-2019)
This year’s Community Read book — Callings, by David Isay — helped us kick off the school year with a tremendous framework for discussions about purpose, intentions, and the unique Journeys we take as we discover our places in the world.
Throughout orientation and into our first week, the stories and themes in Callings were starting points for conversations around campus. At Convocation on Monday, featured speaker and faculty member Chelle Salvucci P’26 led with the above Mary Oliver quote, which opened Callings, and tied the many threads of the book to this year’s theme of creativity.
Because creativity is a theme we’ll return to again and again this year, I’d like to reiterate three points Ms. Salvucci made in her address: (1) creativity is about invention, and it is essential to our lives; (2) creativity is work — to achieve it, you have to strive for it; and (3) creativity is risky — to be creative, you have to be willing to fail, because in failure we build grit and discover new paths and new ideas.
In my Convocation address, I also referenced the many journeys in Callings — in particular focusing on a story which features one of my favorite Quaker phrases: “Let Your Life Speak.”
As we begin the new year, I ask each of you to let your life speak — through your choices, the care you show for one another, and the way that you help shape your various communities on a daily basis.
The stories in Callings remind us that what we do, day in and day out, matters more than we know. As we each commit to our Journeys at Cushing, to the values that make up our Portrait of a Graduate, and to living with creativity and integrity, I know we will make this year extraordinary.
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