Video: Bates 2020 in images, ‘may we be good to each other’

In this presentation of Bates pictures and video from 2020, you’ll hear the voice of Multifaith Chaplain Brittany Longsdorf as she offered the benediction to conclude last September’s Opening Convocation.

The words are apt for our times: chosen with love and, we hope, received similarly intended by you, our Bates community, as we close out the year:

Even when we feel wrapped in uncertainty, may we know what is essential. Learn what gives us life, and sense when we are called to create something new.

In this moment, wherever you are, let us take a communal, centering breath, and sense the sacred deep together that only pilgrimaging through unknown territory such as this can bring.

May we be good each other on the journey. May we be caring companions on unexpected terrain. May we share laughter and life despite worry and grief. May we offer one another rest amidst exhaustion.

And as William Stringfellow ’49 wrote, may we listen deeply as a “primitive act of love.”

We are called to care for one another in this Bates community in ways never asked of us before. May we rise to this occasion with compassion and courage. May it be so.