Life Spring 2010

Features

A Day in a Life

by Kerry Temple ’74

“Sometimes, appraising my life, wondering what I’m doing here, what’s it mean, what’s it all for, I sit comfortably in the mystery, letting the music play.”
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Let Me Begin This Celebration of Life

by Chet Raymo ’58, ’64Ph.D.

“What we do know for sure is that all life on Earth is related by common descent. As to where the first self-replicating terrestrial organism came from, no one yet knows.”
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And Now, the Cycle Will Go On

by Anne Canright

“I think about how, in this place, for thousands of years, the foxes have danced after deer mice, wrestled each other in their mating ritual, rested under purple lupine and taught their young the pleasures of seafigs and crabs.”
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My Unwarranted Gift

by Dennis Lopez ’74

“There are no cheap seats in life, it’s pay as you go. We get what we’re given, mold it to what we need and move along. . . . I have everything I ever wanted.”
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The Symphony of a Lifetime

by Joseph Epstein

“Of all the stages of my life my four years in public high school have been the most unrelievedly happy ones. These were the years in which I enjoyed neither athletic glory nor the least hint of academic distinction. I came to school each day not for learning but for laughter.”
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Life in the Abyss

by Jeremy Manier ’92

“I don’t think you can say that God is all-merciful and all-powerful. You have to choose one. I’d much rather have an all-merciful God.”
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What Would Nana Say?

by Katie Peralta ’10

“Nana’s children longed for a world beyond Blaine Avenue, and they soon scattered themselves all over the country. Kids are supposed to take off on their own. Leaving one’s comfort zone, I learned from her, is the only way to grow.”
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It Is in Receiving that We Give

by Maraya Steadman ’89, ’90MBA

“As my daughter is placed in my arms, the solitary aspect of this endurance is over. I now realize, in the moment of her birth, that I will never be alone again. This child will be with me always. My life no longer belongs to me.”
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Life Is Good

by Richard Garnett

“Every human person is precious and inviolable, every human person has dignity and worth, and every human person ought to be welcomed in life and protected by law.”
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Life Is a Byway

by Mark Lawton

‘When you can follow a personal passion, you enthusiastically bring joy to your own life and the lives of others.’
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Sentenced to Life

by Kenneth E. Hartman

“The trouble for those of us growing old in prison, we of the broken body and wounded, drained spirit, is that free society’s fears far outlive our fearsomeness.”
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The Goldilocks Zone

by Mark Yates

“I do not know if life is a gift from God, a turn of the karma wheel or just pure chance. But I share my former lab colleague’s reverence, and this means actively polishing our spirits and thus the spirits of others.”
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One Life for Many

by Jerry Kammer ’71

“I tell my students that our class is like a wagon train heading out across this great expanse of learning to reach our goal — an education. No one will be thrown overboard; no one will be left behind. Together, we are all going to get there.”
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It’s What We Do

by Amy Van Aarem

And Finally, Some Stuff We Don’t Know about Life

by Jake Page

“Prioritizing ignorances is something that should be done from time to time, even though gaining a list of priorities to which we can all subscribe would seem pretty hard to do.”
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Cover art by Nicholas Wilton.