We gather here today as people from many different backgrounds and beliefs, and we gather against the backdrop of a world that far too often sees difference as cause for division. At ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾, we believe that difference need not be an end but can in fact be the beginning of something beautiful and even beloved. As we begin this academic year, let us commit ourselves to practice a super power we all hold in common: our love ability. We are all love-able. Each one of us is able and worthy to receive love, and each one of us has the ability to extend love. Repeat after me: we are love-able.
May our love ability help us build beloved community at ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾.
May each of you make and time space regularly to remember that you are love-able. May you extend your love ability to practice care and compassion toward yourselves. For as the great RuPaul Charles reminds us, “If you can’t love yourself, how in the hell are you gonna love somebody else?” Repeat after me: I am love-able.
Having practiced self-care, may you then extend your love ability to all those you encounter on campus, whether in the museum or in Moulton; in the lab or in the library; in the field house or out doing field research. May we all—students, staff, professors, and administrators alike—look out for the needs and concerns of our neighbors. And when conflicts arise—and have no doubt, arise they will, for conflict is a normal and often necessary component of creating beloved community—may we have the presence of mind to practice love through compassion, curiosity, and humility. Repeat after me: we are love-able.
And may our love ability not stop at the edges of campus, but extend far beyond. May the knowledge and skills you develop here not be for private gain, but rather may they enrich the life of the world and be in service of the common good. May we seek to strengthen our relationships with all our neighbors, here in Brunswick, across the state of Maine, and especially with the Wabanaki. May we learn from their elders and traditions, and may we recover a sense of sacred connection to the land, the sky, the woods and waters. Repeat after me: our neighbors are love-able.
And for you new students, in a special way today I pray that love would define your time beneath the pines. When you leave this place, may you take the wisdom and love you have gained here and use it to create beloved communities wherever your life journey might lead.
May it be so, today and throughout your time at ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾. Join me one final time in repeating: We are love-able.
