Dear Nazareth faculty and staff;
As promised, I am reaching out to you as the semester and academic year come to a close, and we embark upon the summer, on the way to points beyond.
As summer progresses, I will stay in touch with you. In each message, I will also pose a question for your reflection and I invite you to share your thoughts with me and the Nazareth community. I am inspired by – and eager to join in – the Nazareth community’s willingness to ask hard questions and have constructive critical dialogue. Our reflective journey this summer will not only enrich our planning for fall, it will also prepare us for a thoughtful collaborative planning process in fall to define the key strategies that will shape our next horizon.
During this time of so many unknowns and unknowables, I imagine you are experiencing a lot of what I am feeling. On any given day – what day of the week is it, anyway!? – I work intensely, sometimes feel disoriented and frustrated, and question long-held assumptions and why we have perennially done things a certain way. At the same time, in this fluid time I also feel bursts of energy and excitement for possibility and I feel hopeful about what will emerge from this time. My interest is piqued even more every time I hear about the great ingenuity of the Nazareth community as people have come together to solve the complex challenges of our times.
I find myself obsessively looking for expertise and guidance – answers - on what post-COVID life will be like. The persistent fervor about what it will take to “reopen” or “go back” to society implies that we will return to “normalcy” – familiar routines, expected interactions, and comfortable habits. As if to continue to be ourselves we must return to the same day-to-day experiences. Yet so much has changed and must change so that we can again live, learn, and work in community. Our lives’ purposes will continue even as we find new ways to fulfill them. Thus, I have shifted from thinking about “reopening” or “going back” to thinking about how we will “emerge.”
As summer progresses, I will stay in touch with you. In each message, I will also pose a question for your reflection and I invite you to share your thoughts with me and the Nazareth community. I am inspired by – and eager to join in – the Nazareth community’s willingness to ask hard questions and have constructive critical dialogue. Our reflective journey this summer will not only enrich our planning for fall, it will also prepare us for a thoughtful collaborative planning process in fall to define the key strategies that will shape our next horizon.
During this time of so many unknowns and unknowables, I imagine you are experiencing a lot of what I am feeling. On any given day – what day of the week is it, anyway!? – I work intensely, sometimes feel disoriented and frustrated, and question long-held assumptions and why we have perennially done things a certain way. At the same time, in this fluid time I also feel bursts of energy and excitement for possibility and I feel hopeful about what will emerge from this time. My interest is piqued even more every time I hear about the great ingenuity of the Nazareth community as people have come together to solve the complex challenges of our times.
I find myself obsessively looking for expertise and guidance – answers - on what post-COVID life will be like. The persistent fervor about what it will take to “reopen” or “go back” to society implies that we will return to “normalcy” – familiar routines, expected interactions, and comfortable habits. As if to continue to be ourselves we must return to the same day-to-day experiences. Yet so much has changed and must change so that we can again live, learn, and work in community. Our lives’ purposes will continue even as we find new ways to fulfill them. Thus, I have shifted from thinking about “reopening” or “going back” to thinking about how we will “emerge.”
As my family is preparing for our move to Rochester, I am spending a lot of time considering what we will bring with us and what we will leave behind. This process is often sentimental, as I remember with a full heart times past. It is also freeing as I realize the opening to what’s next. It strikes me that the pandemic is asking us to do the same reflection in defining how we will emerge and conceive the beyond-COVID college and community. We are all being given an opportunity right now to reflect, focus, let go, and imagine anew. This opportunity is vitally important to each of us as individuals, and to our collective as the Nazareth community.
What is inspiring to me about Nazareth is that I believe what we need to move beyond this crisis is already deep within us. Our founding commitments, asserted on the heels of the pandemic of 1918, define and propel us now as we shape Nazareth’s and society’s emergence from the pandemic 100 years hence.
Question for reflection and dialogue:
What is inspiring to me about Nazareth is that I believe what we need to move beyond this crisis is already deep within us. Our founding commitments, asserted on the heels of the pandemic of 1918, define and propel us now as we shape Nazareth’s and society’s emergence from the pandemic 100 years hence.
Question for reflection and dialogue:
As we come through this crisis – and we will – what is the essence of Nazareth that will help us emerge with strength and positive impact? What key words describe the compelling meaning and spirit of Nazareth? What core commitments and values define the enduring essence of the College?
Please respond to the question in the comments section here. >
I look forward to reading your reflections, as I am eager to learn from and with you.
Warmly,
Beth