Thinking of Fall

It's hard to walk around campus these days without noticing that the seasons are changing.  Summer's warmth is gone, and it has been replaced by the cool winds and falling leaves of autumn.  Autumn, for us, means a great many things: school is in full swing, sweaters are brought out of the closet, and the days are gradually getting shorter. We hunt for pumpkins, enjoy Apple Cider, and as children we dress up and go trick or treating.

We like autumn well enough, but we don't assign any great spiritual meaning to it.

Throughout much of human history, however, autumn has meant something quite different.

Nearly every ancient culture saw the autumn as a time of not only great importance, but also as an opportunity for spiritual reflection and introspection.

Autumn is the time of the harvest, when crops and livestock, which have been cared for since the spring, are reaped from the earth to be sustenance for the long winter.  This process was of enormous importance to ancient peoples; it could literally mean the difference between survival and starvation.  It also had an enormous spiritual meaning,

as a bountiful harvest was seen as a sign of good favor with the many deities which ancient peoples believed presided over the earth and the elements, and, accordingly, a validation of the harvester's good virtue and actions. 

Conversely, a poor harvest was perceived as a punishment for sins committed throughout the year.

Simply stated, the ancients believed that "we reap what we sow."

As we sit in this chapel, in the twenty-first century, we are long removed from this worldview.  We no longer need to worry about our survival as the ancients did, and the holidays and festivals which celebrate the harvest are largely lost to history. 

And yet, the idea of having a good or bad harvest, of reaping what we sow, is still relevant to us.

We have had a harvest of sorts this past week....only we call them grades.

Like the harvest for the ancients, the end of the first quarter for us serves largely as a validation or a repudiation of the work we have done during the first part of the academic year.  All of you, for better or for worse, have reaped what you have sown.

Now, in spite of how some of you probably feel....I assure you...You will survive.  I promise you that your parents won't ACTUALLY kill you.

But perhaps you have made some mistakes, and perhaps your harvest is not what you'd hoped it would be.  Now, as for the ancients, is your opportunity for self-assessment and introspection.  The ancients believed that no one understands our own errors like ourselves.  They further believed that the self was the only real agent for meaningful change.

And so it is in the spirit that I humbly offer advice to each of you.  If you are unhappy with your harvest, consider what you have done, or what you have not done, to earn it.  Reflect upon your actions with honesty and accept ownership for your mistakes.  But, recognize that your mistakes do not define you, and that yes, you will survive.   And for those of you who are pleased with your performance, remember that the bounty of one harvest does not guarantee the success of the next....we all must start anew.

To the ancients, the only blessing greater than one harvest was the opportunity to  plant for another.  Each one of you has that opportunity and that challenge.  For even as we reap one harvest, we also plant and work for the next.