“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

Send me to a grocery 
store-I'm happy there. 
I want to rescue that old lady 
trying to reach olives on the top 
shelf, and then listen intently as she 
tells me about the greatest casserole ever 
made. During checkout, I've got a killer story 
about the zucchini people, which I'm sure 
will calm that ranting five-year-old and 
brighten the face of the wasted clerk.
I'll challenge any teenager to race 
shopping carts like scooters 
into the parking lot.



I'll be home by six
to raise sons and daughters
who strive to be tender instead of
tough, and pure instead of popular.
My marriage will last forever, the
crowning and most important 
investment of my life.

Of course
I want to run a company,
build my wealth, and become the Governor, 
but I see grander returns from the business of compassion.

I will love humanity.

I'm painfully aware of how often I fail to live this way-distracted 
by the incredible abundance we did nothing to earn. 
And so, I pray, as did St Francis of Assisi:

Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace; 
Where there is hatred, let me sow Love; 
Where there is injury, Pardon;
Where there is doubt, Faith; 
Where there is despair, Hope; 
Where there is darkness, Light;

— Matt Beecher

The Portrait Project

Each year we ask our classmates a straightforward, simple question taken from the lines of a poem by Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Mary Oliver. We share with you intimate and candid responses to this question, "Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"

Concept and photography: Tony Deifell, MBA '02

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