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NMH Magazine : Winter 2005

From the President

The Power of Connection and Compassion 

by Richard W. Mueller’62 

 

The pictures and news from South and Southeast Asia are riveting and heartrending. I write from snowy New England, trying to fathom the power of the tsunami and the death and destruction it brought so quickly.

Many of us experience the frustration of being unable to do more in the short term than send money to a relief organization. As one small gesture, I sent a message through a mutual friend to Secretary of State Colin Powell asking that he carry our best wishes and hopes for sustained recovery to the people of the area.

We have been in touch with students, parents, and others to learn who has been affected. One of our families was having breakfast overlooking the beach in Thailand as the water thundered in—their experience was harrowing as they made their way to higher ground and safety. An employee and her spouse were visiting family in the area; it took several days for us to learn they were unharmed. An alumna was on a boat that barely received enough warning to be able to shelter behind an island. An alumnus left Krabi to play golf in Phuket shortly before the wave hit; the hotel he planned to stay in after his golf game was completely destroyed and most of its inhabitants lost.

On campus, students returned from break and helped lift our spirits with their own energy and positiveness. We experienced an outpouring of compassion: Students, faculty, and staff alike joined together in fundraising and other efforts to assist. An alumnus is already hard at work in southern Thailand organizing relief for a village where 90 percent of the people died.

We would like to hear from our alumni and friends who have had experiences with the disaster or news to report. As we receive information and reassurances from our friends, I am again reminded of how far-flung our NMH community is and how involved in a fascinating range of endeavors. There aren’t many places one can travel without meeting someone with an NMH connection.

Noel Paul Stookey’s song “Facets of a Jewel” keeps playing in my mind:

Our lives are connected

Like facets of a jewel…

 

Our lives are connected

Like waves upon the shore….

It doesn’t take a leap of imagination to go from thinking about connections within the NMH family to appreciating how we are all connected as human beings and how, in turn, we are inextricably a part of our natural environment.

The uniqueness of an NMH education includes understanding and appreciating peoples and cultures around the world as well as the environmental issues that affect us all. The tsunami and its devastating effects are a reminder of the challenges humankind faces, and the importance of our students’ leadership in positively shaping this world through the 21st century.