Seattle Pacific University MFA in Creative Writing<\/a> commencement ceremony last month<\/em>.<\/p>\nFor centuries, wise men and women of various traditions have troubled the terms being<\/em> and becoming<\/em>, without arriving at anything like conclusion. We affirm the beauty and joy of being\u2014being writers, being Christians, being laborers in and lovers of a complex realm that is concurrently material and<\/em> spiritual. Still, in the very midst of our being, we are obliged to affirm the efficacy of becoming, the call to be ever becoming.<\/p>\nDuring our residency we shared the deep pleasure of poring over Holy the Firm<\/em>, a delicious if challenging text by the beloved Annie Dillard. Among the many provocative passages in that book, Dillard attends to the gap between what is known<\/em> and what is<\/em>.<\/p>\n\u201cHere is the fringey edge,\u201d she writes, \u201cwhere elements meet and realms mingle, where time and eternity spatter each other with foam. The salt sea and the islands\u2014molding and molding, row upon rolling row\u2014don\u2019t quit, nor do winds end nor skies cease from spreading in curves.\u201d<\/p>\n
Later in the book, she offers the following:<\/p>\n
And now outside the window, deep on the horizon, a new thing appears, as if we needed a new thing. It is a new land blue beyond islands, hitherto hidden by haze and now revealed, and as dumb as the rest. I check my chart, my amateur penciled sketch of the skyline. Yes, this land is new, this spread blue spark beyond yesterday\u2019s new wrinkled line, beyond the blue veil a sailor said was Salt Spring Island. How long can this go on? But let us by all means extend the scope of our charts.<\/em><\/p>\nHow long can this go on\u2014this continuing discovery of one new thing, then another, with each discovery requiring that we revise our sense of where we stand, and of what lies before us?<\/p>\n
At any given point along our journeys\u2014and this is perhaps especially true for points like today\u2019s profound occasion\u2014we may be tempted to think that we have arrived at our destinations, that we now see as clearly and as far as need be. We may be tempted to pitch our tents just here, to make camp\u2014as it were, and to stay put\u2014to do, hereafter, as we have done. We may be tempted to hang up a shingle announcing that we are pleased to be. Just so.<\/p>\n
That would be a shame.<\/p>\n
Being and becoming are, duly considered, two dispositions of a common and coherent life. It is both meet and right to honor where we have been, to acknowledge what has assisted our awareness of our being here now; it is meet and right to honor the moment, the momentous moment, as such.<\/p>\n
Still, any commencement\u2014is most efficacious if it occasions our considering what it is that is now commencing.<\/p>\n
That would be our becoming.<\/p>\n
That would be our moving ahead into the persons we are called to become, the writers we want very much to become.<\/p>\n
It is our hope and prayer that every lesson gleaned over the past two-and-a-half years of your labor has been felt to be a worthwhile lesson, that every book you\u2019ve read, every annotation you\u2019ve written, every seminar discussion has contributed to your finding your feet, assisted in strengthening and toning your discursive, linguistic muscle, and has nourished you with food for the journey ahead.<\/p>\n
At the very least, it is our hope and our prayer that you have developed a dialogical relationship with the deep tradition of letters that precedes you, and that you have found the faith, the courage, and the discipline to enter under your own terms into that longstanding and ongoing conversation.<\/p>\n
All of this is to say that as we stand here, at the \u201cfringey edge\u201d of the thus far known, thus far articulated world, you may yet apprehend something of the always more that is yet to be seen, and named, and shared. Even as we pray that you feel duly equipped to continue the work without us, we want to assure you that we will always be here when you need us.<\/p>\n
Br\u00e1vo sas<\/em>, as the Greeks like to say. Kal\u00ed epitik\u00eda<\/em>. Good success!<\/p>\n![\"GL](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/162\/2015\/09\/GL-banner-1024x279.jpg\")
<\/a><\/em><\/p>\nScott Cairns has published eight poetry collections, a book of translations, a spiritual memoir, and a book-length theological essay. He is a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and of the Denise Levertov Award. He is Curators\u2019 Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Missouri, and directs the low-residency MFA program in Creative Writing at Seattle Pacific University.<\/p>\n
Image by Super Awesome on flickr, used with permission under a Creative Commons License.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The following is adapted from an address given at the Seattle Pacific University MFA in Creative Writing commencement ceremony last month. For centuries, wise men and women of various traditions have troubled the terms being and becoming, without arriving at anything like conclusion. We affirm the beauty and joy of being\u2014being writers, being Christians, being […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[363,1457],"tags":[213,619,3945,4141,244,304,1799,1130,626,394,3625],"class_list":["post-11153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-guest-contributor","category-personal-reflection","tag-annie-dillard","tag-discovery","tag-guest-post","tag-holy-the-firm","tag-journey","tag-learning","tag-life-purpose","tag-mfa","tag-scott-cairns","tag-the-writing-life","tag-vision"],"yoast_head":"\n
Always Becoming<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The following is adapted from an address given at the Seattle Pacific University MFA in Creative Writing commencement ceremony last month. For centuries,\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/2017\/04\/always-becoming\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Always Becoming\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The following is adapted from an address given at the Seattle Pacific University MFA in Creative Writing commencement ceremony last month. For centuries,\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/2017\/04\/always-becoming\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Good Letters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-04-19T10:30:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-05-09T19:22:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/imagejournal.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/img076-by-super-awesome-on-flickr-300x200.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Guest Contributor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Guest Contributor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/2017\/04\/always-becoming\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/2017\/04\/always-becoming\/\",\"name\":\"Always Becoming\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-04-19T10:30:43+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-05-09T19:22:20+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/#\/schema\/person\/2869b699bf0e57982cb1f212243705f2\"},\"description\":\"The following is adapted from an address given at the Seattle Pacific University MFA in Creative Writing commencement ceremony last month. For centuries,\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/2017\/04\/always-becoming\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/2017\/04\/always-becoming\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/2017\/04\/always-becoming\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Always Becoming\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/\",\"name\":\"Good Letters\",\"description\":\"Words. Made flesh.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/#\/schema\/person\/2869b699bf0e57982cb1f212243705f2\",\"name\":\"Guest Contributor\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5010a3cc274cdb37811bf24de46dc280?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5010a3cc274cdb37811bf24de46dc280?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Guest Contributor\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/author\/admin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Always Becoming","description":"The following is adapted from an address given at the Seattle Pacific University MFA in Creative Writing commencement ceremony last month. For centuries,","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/2017\/04\/always-becoming\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Always Becoming","og_description":"The following is adapted from an address given at the Seattle Pacific University MFA in Creative Writing commencement ceremony last month. For centuries,","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/2017\/04\/always-becoming\/","og_site_name":"Good Letters","article_published_time":"2017-04-19T10:30:43+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-05-09T19:22:20+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/imagejournal.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/img076-by-super-awesome-on-flickr-300x200.jpg"}],"author":"Guest Contributor","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Guest Contributor","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/2017\/04\/always-becoming\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/2017\/04\/always-becoming\/","name":"Always Becoming","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/#website"},"datePublished":"2017-04-19T10:30:43+00:00","dateModified":"2017-05-09T19:22:20+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/#\/schema\/person\/2869b699bf0e57982cb1f212243705f2"},"description":"The following is adapted from an address given at the Seattle Pacific University MFA in Creative Writing commencement ceremony last month. For centuries,","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/2017\/04\/always-becoming\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/2017\/04\/always-becoming\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/2017\/04\/always-becoming\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Always Becoming"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/","name":"Good Letters","description":"Words. Made flesh.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/#\/schema\/person\/2869b699bf0e57982cb1f212243705f2","name":"Guest Contributor","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5010a3cc274cdb37811bf24de46dc280?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5010a3cc274cdb37811bf24de46dc280?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Guest Contributor"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11153\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"silhouetted](\"https:\/\/imagejournal.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/img076-by-super-awesome-on-flickr.jpg\")
<\/a>The following is adapted from an address given at the Seattle Pacific University MFA in Creative Writing<\/a> commencement ceremony last month<\/em>.<\/p>\n