Seasons Greetings from New England

by Frank Bartolomeo, Executive Director

One of the benefits of residing in New England is the dramatic change of seasons. Throughout history and across cultures, societies, especially agrarian ones, developed rituals to mark and celebrate the recurring seasonal cycles; rituals which have both psychological and social meaning. Although the modern day celebration of Thanksgiving, celebrated each year in the USA and Canada, is relatively new in historic terms, harvest festivals are not; for centuries different cultures, from the ancient Egyptians to pagan practices in Europe, have celebrated the gathering of the harvest and given thanks for the sustenance the Earth literally provides. Depending on the country, the season and timing of the gathering of the harvest varies; but traditionally, harvest festival is associated with the months of fall. At ASR, "harvest" celebrations occur four times per year in the form of commencement ceremonies. Below are my Commencement Ceremony remarks from the August 2009 graduation:

"What is commencement as ASR? It is, for those for work at ASR, in essence a harvest celebration; it is a time for graduates, parents, family members to celebrate the fruits of our collective labor.

"Recently, a prospective parent asked me, "So how do you make kids change?" After reflecting for a moment or two, I replied, "We don't; what we do is create the conditions that make change and growth possible."

"For what we are, those of us who work at ASR, is gardeners. My Italian grandfather, Francesco, would be proud that that I have in my own way applied the lessons he taught me about gardening and tending to fruit-bearing trees. The first lesson known to every gardener is there is a force, an intelligence, in nature that we do not control. Plants, flowers, and trees grow not because they are told or forced to; they grow because it is their nature to grow.

"We do know that certain conditions promote growth, others impede, and yet other conditions kill. So we tend to the soil of ASR. The gardeners who work in Admissions are responsible for insuring, to the extent possible, that the seedlings that arrive to ASR are right for our ground.

"We know that plants can be over-nurtured, and I learned from my grandfather that for plants and trees to grow hardy, they have to be pruned, cut back, and gradually exposed to real life conditions. We know that weeds can steal precious nutrients, can overcome the plants and block the sustenance of the sun; and sometimes plants and trees have to be transplanted to ground better suited for their growth.

"I also learned that plants can over-watered and over-fertilized - that there can be too much of a good thing. One of the things that we frequently have to teach parents is that loving also requires cutting back, and creating trellises and supports so that their plants, whose force they cannot control, will grow straight and strong.

"One of the advantages of ASR is that we have many gardeners, tillers of soil, and that some at better at watering, some are best at pruning. Through a mindful mixture, we try to find the right measure and timing - being mindful that we cannot control the force within the plant, which can take to our garden...and sometimes not.

"To the graduates you have been watered by the tears of your parents, family, friends - and sometimes without your knowledge by the tears of staff at ASR. At times your tears were necessary as well. You have benefited by the sweat of hard work because tending to one's garden deserves that.

"So today we celebrate the fruits your labor, the labor of your parents and families, and our labor. I will tell you that at times it is difficult to be a gardener at Swift River - we have so many different plants and varieties. Some of the cacti are difficult to deal with, sometimes the drooping flowers are not so easy to prop up, sometimes the fortified trunk of an unyielding oak is difficult to manage. But there are several days a year when we get to enjoy the fruits of our collective labor. A day like today - commencement day."

In societies highly dependent on the harvesting of crops for survival, Harvest Festivals were a time to gather, and "take stock" of the crops cultivated and produced from the Earth. On October 21, 2009, the management team at ASR surprised our students and staff with a surprise Harvest Festival.

The purpose of this festival was twofold: first, for the management team to express our gratitude to the staff and students of ASR and to give our thanks for being part of a community with them; second, we wanted to take some time to pause and to count our blessings. We noted that our lives can become so busy and preoccupied with "what's next" - for students it might be their next exam or working toward their next level - that we can lose sight of what's already there: friends, families, and good will. Aided by the Sage Dining Crew, who prepared a feast of apple and pumpkin pies, cider doughnuts, mulled and chilled cider, all served by members of the management team, members of the community of ASR, both students and staff, spontaneously recognized the abundance within their lives right now. It was capped off with a scarecrow making contest, won narrowly by the Wolves team, who created a scarecrow that eerily resembled our Facilities Manager, Dave Martin.

As we moved into December, winter announced her arrival with cold, shorter days, colder nights, and snow. Winter is a time of drawing inward, physically and psychologically, and with the increased absence of light, in many religious traditions it is a time to celebrate light. The continued presence of light and warmth even during times of apparent absence is a powerful metaphor we use with students at ASR: for some it is a reminder that difficulties are part of the life cycle and that circumstances do improve; for others it is a reminder, especially for students who must remain on campus during holidays, that sometimes the absence of something, particularly things taken for granted, creates appreciation for it. This seems to be the case for many of our students. Frequently, students who are not able to spend important holidays in the comfort of their homes will express missing their families, and when asked how they spent their holiday the year prior, it turns out that precious little of it involved time with their families. Separation, albeit difficult, can be the beginning of re-evaluating values and priorities, and for many of our students, the beginning of both remembered and present appreciation of family and loved ones. Happy Holidays from the ASR family to yours,

Dr. Frank Bartolomeo, Executive Director