The first snow of the season has fallen a couple hours north of Middletown, and as I make my way through leftovers and get ready for the last week of classes, I send best wishes to my fellow-Wesleyans, near and far.
On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving I sent the following message to campus:
Do you need a break? I know I am feeling it this year as we head toward Thanksgiving. I’m looking forward to taking time with family, to sharing meals, laughs, and expressing gratitude together. I am so thankful for my teachers—people who opened for me worlds of thinking, dreaming, listening, and looking. I am also thankful for my students—people who have questioned my certainties, probed my doubts, and opened themselves up to living more expansive lives, often with deeper purpose. I am thankful for my colleagues here at Wesleyan—co-workers who make our university sing. I draw on my connections to teachers, students, and colleagues for comfort and inspiration.
I also draw on some poets, like the great W.S. Merwin:
Listen
with the night falling we are saying thank you
we are stopping on the bridges to bow from the railings
we are running out of the glass rooms
with our mouths full of food to look at the sky
and say thank you
we are standing by the water thanking it
The poem turns much darker, but I’ll let you read that yourselves. It still speaks gratitude, as does the final section of the lovely Praise Song for the Day by Elizabeth Alexander:
Praise song for struggle, praise song for the day.
Praise song for every hand-lettered sign,
the figuring-it-out at kitchen tables.
Some live by love thy neighbor as thyself,
others by first do no harm or take no more
than you need. What if the mightiest word is love?
Love beyond marital, filial, national,
love that casts a widening pool of light,
love with no need to pre-empt grievance.
In today’s sharp sparkle, this winter air,
any thing can be made, any sentence begun.
On the brink, on the brim, on the cusp,
praise song for walking forward in that light.
I hope your Thanksgiving celebrations will be filled with mighty love, and that you return to campus refreshed, ready for “walking forward in that light.”
Happy Thanksgiving!