NOVEMBER 17, 2017
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“We Are Doing This for Generations Yet Unborn.” “People who embrace the art and discipline of agapic energy live courageous, audacious, significant, and ever expanding lives. When we explore and enact courageous unconditional love, we uncover aspects of the human condition we never considered or discussed before.”
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his 2017 year has brought us chaos, instability, violence, division in our nation, but in eloquent response, the year at St. Andrew’s found expression and inspiration from Bryan Stevenson in January and Diane Nash in November. Both leaders shared how their own experiences with inequality, prejudice, and intolerance awakened them to the full expression and exploration of their education and their lives. Nash led the intrepid movement to dismantle the iron gates of segregation. In her spirit, Stevenson continues to expose the racist tragedy of mass incarceration and the brutal legacy of lynching in the American South. In their powerful addresses in Engelhard Hall, they articulated the full expression of a life of wisdom, courage, and transformation, and in so doing they suggested that we do not have to rely on government to change the world: we have agency, responsibility, and spirit to do good work. Diane Nash began her remarks by teaching us the many forms of energy we may choose to share. We can devote our energy to idleness, distraction, narcissistic pursuits. We can unleash threats, violence, devastation. Or, we can focus our work, our discipline, our creativity on what she beautifully described as agapic energy—“the love of humankind.” Living with agapic energy in our hearts and spirit represents a powerful and vibrant response to the chaos of our time. It gives us the opportunity to define and explore the central purpose of our lives. We remember that Bryan Stevenson towards the end of his studies at Harvard Law School found himself surrounded by peers eager to embrace lucrative professional opportunities—all the while he felt a deep disconnect between his 57
