June 2009 1791 Letter - Berwick Academy

Peter Saliba
If I combine my own schooling
with my career, I have endured
approximately thirty commencement
exercises. When I use the word
endure, I’m referring to the ordeal of
the commencement address. Usually,
these things are pretty dry affairs, and
I fi nd myself counting the caps of the
graduates to make sure they are not
lying down and napping. This year,
Dr. Dora Mills set a new standard
for our future speakers at Berwick.
Her talk was relevant, connected,
and meaningful. I’ve included some
excerpts for those of you who did not
get a chance to hear her speak. Enjoy!
Today, I thought I would share with
you three ingredients that I wish I had more of
in1978. First, is the ingredient of gratitude. Each
and every one of you stands on the shoulders of
your parents and/or other adults who played
a signifi cant role in your life. Today is a day
that we also reach out and thank them – for
giving you their patience, their promotion, and
much of your potential. As you venture off to
college or other such adventures, you’ll learn
that it’s not always easy to be thankful for all
these gifts. You’ll learn that some of what you
grew up with are idiosyncrasies that seem not
to be shared by many other families, sometimes
hurtful and at the best sometimes embarrassing.
The second ingredient is that of
wearing a wide angle lens, that is, seeing the
connectivity that exists in the world, and acting
with that realization.
Berwick Academy has already given
you a wide angle lens. Although I was not
fortunate enough to attend school at this hilltop,
I was fortunate to learn about connectivity from
a year living and working in the mid-1980s in
a small village named Shirati, in Tanzania,
East Africa in a Mennonite hospital. Actually,
it was the time I returned to visit Shirati years
later while practicing medicine in Maine that
taught me the most about connectivity. Upon
returning there, I was shocked to see so many
changes. 10 years after my time there the
schools were nearly empty – because the HIV/
AIDS epidemic had stolen their parents, and
many children now needed to work in the fi elds.
But, the hospital’s pediatric ward was also
gladly nearly empty – and had been so ever
since the local water tower had been completed,
allowing for water to be pumped from nearby
Lake Victoria and used for drinking water. As
a result, the leading cause of hospitalization
of young children, diarrhea, was almost
eliminated.
When I returned from my trip
to practice medicine in my hometown in
Maine, I then started seeing the community
differently. I saw the connections between the
built environment, the natural environment,
the economy, education, and health. I started
seeing that sidewalks, clean water, poverty, and
educational opportunities all had a stronger
effect on the health of my patients than most
medicines I could dispense. Seeing these
connections in East Africa and then in my
own community in Maine is why I stepped into
public health. I realized that public health gave
me the opportunity to work on the interconnected
factors affecting health – the environment, the
effects of poverty and education.
While walking down life’s path with
gratitude and with a wide angle lens is important,
the third ingredient of passion is the most critical.
And, I will tell you how I stumbled across this
one. After living out of state for a number of
years, I was drawn to moving back to Maine.
Before coming home, I took a few months off,
hiking in the Himalayan Mountains of Nepal
and India, then spending a month working in
Calcutta with the Missionaries of Charity and
Mother Teresa
On my last day, as was the custom,
I spoke to Mother Teresa, as was the custom
when you were leaving, to thank her for the
experience of working there. She asked how
it had been. I shared with her my gratitude.
And, I also shared with her my guilt. I told her
that while other volunteers were staying on or
talking about returning, my heart was in my
home state of Maine. My dreams were about
returning to my family and to my roots and to
work in Maine after being absent for so long.
Yet, I felt guilty, as clearly the abject need was
much greater in Calcutta.
She then grasped my hands and made
the connection for me I had not seen. She said,
“if where you are going you will work with
love and love your work, then that is where you
are called to be.” If you are going you will
work with love and love your work, then that is
where you are called to be. I am indeed grateful
to love what I am doing. It took a trip half way
around the world and a little old lady to teach
me the importance of walking life’s path with
passion.
So, I wish for you to walk with these
ingredients, these lessons that took me so many
years to accumulate and to learn – to walk with
gratitude in your heart, to walk wearing a wide
angle lens of the world, and to walk with your
passion. I know you will do so, as the hilltops
and hallways of Berwick Academy have, in the
words of your 218 year old charter, promoted
“true piety and virtue and useful knowledge
among” you – the rising generation of today.
It has been a great honor to share
with you most wonderful day. Thank you.
Go Bulldogs!
4 1791 Letter ~ June 2009