Dean Powery to Students: Don’t Just Make a Living, Make a Life

In his first column this semester for the (Duke) Chronicle, Chapel Dean Luke Powery tells students that even more important than making a living is to make a life in all its fullness.

Citing this year’s Common Experience book The Measure—and its plot in which the characters learn how long they will live—Dean Powery says, “Even if we end up living a long time, our lives are still short in the scheme of things — and often shorter than we think.”

This sobering reality gives rise to perennial questions, he says: “How do you live if you know your time is short? How do love if you know your beloved’s time is limited?”

In response to such questions, Dean Powery writes, “As you start this semester, be ready to learn, ready to grow, ready to have new experiences. What are your joys? Engage them. What are your loves? Attend to them.”

“Laugh. Play. Sing. Dance…. Don’t just exist this school year. Live.”