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» President Scrimshaw on "Composing a Life"


Simmons College President Susan Scrimshaw addressed nearly 600 attendees at the Simmons honors convocation recently and spoke to them about building a life through celebrating our diversity, our creativity, and our idealism. Her full remarks appear below.

A few years ago, I read a book by Mary Catherine Bateson, the daughter of anthropologist Margaret Mead, who was my professor and mentor.

The book is called "Composing a Life." In it, Bateson describes the lives of five remarkable women as "works in progress." (Bateson 1990). Bateson uses these five women to illustrate the concept of women's lives as art, as intentional creativity.

She writes: "The circumstances of women's lives… provide examples for new ways of thinking about the lives of both men and women. What are the possible transfers of learning when life is a collage of different tasks? How does creativity flourish on distraction? One of my favorites - How does creativity flourish on distraction?...And we are so often distracted by multiple demands.?)...And at what point does desperate improvisation become significant achievement?" (Bateson 1990, 9-10)

Bateson asks these questions of mature women, women at the height of remarkable careers. We can all ask these questions, at every phase of our lives and the life of our College. The concept of life as a work of art applies equally to first-year students, to senior professors and administrators, and to Simmons itself. Also contained in this idea is the idea of a reflective life, a life where we do more than "go with the flow" or move from one urgent priority to another. Instead, we must reflect as we go, and expect to change, and to incorporate the unexpected.

This concept is central to what I say to my students in anthropological research methods: "Everything is grist for the anthropological mill. Every experience has meaning and importance for understanding a culture - or a life."

This is my first year at Simmons. The same is true for many of you, who are first-year students and transfer students, new faculty, and new staff. For the rest of the Simmons community, this is your first year of a new Presidency, a new chapter in the life of the College. We are here to interweave our life compositions - my life, your lives, the life of an institution with a long tradition.

As Bateson suggests in her book, a reflective life must have an intentionality, a sense of purpose, but still leave room for innovation and spontaneity - for creativity.

Let's begin with Simmons. Simmons began with a vision held by a man, John Simmons, who understood that women's work had helped make him a fortune. He also understood the constraints that society placed on women, the complexity women faced when dealing with what Bateson calls "a collage of different tasks." He set out to create a College where women could get an education which would enable them to earn independent livelihoods and lead meaningful lives.

The composition that is Simmons began with this premise, which already challenged the very rigid disciplinary boundaries in academic institutions of the time, and departed from the tradition of the ivory tower. For Simmons College, programs of study leading to "independent livelihoods" meant that students functioned in the real world, and learned to work in professions which have a meaningful impact on society. This unusual birth for an academic institution is one of our greatest strengths today. Simmons is known for our community involvement, and for producing excellent professionals.

Ironically, these professions which liberated women in the early years of the 20th century came to be seen as "women's professions." They are viewed by some as confining in the late 20th century and today.

Music provides a metaphor for considering this cultural change. Any good musical composition builds on a theme, and returns to it throughout the piece. In the same way, I believe strongly that our Simmons composition must not abandon this dedication to applied service areas such as library science, social work, nutrition, physical therapy, education, and a focus on children. Instead, we have the obligation to educate society to the essential nature of these professions.

But Simmons must also elaborate on the theme. Part of our artistry as a college came with embracing some areas that presented barriers to women for many years. An example is management, which is still a profession where many of us are the "first" and the "only." Another part of our artistry has come from great success in preparing young women to enter professions in which men and women alike compete fiercely, as our graduates become attorneys, physicians, journalists, and politicians, among others.

I believe another way the Simmons improvisation can become significant achievement, as Bateson puts it, is to build on our growing fascination with global concerns. As we help to build libraries in Vietnam and Iraq, women leaders in management in India, village health in Nicaragua, and nursing programs in Egypt, we realize that through education, we have the ability to empower women and men in our graduate programs.. Women and men who live under constraints not unlike those of our first graduating classes. Our passions to educate and empower, both in local communities and abroad, have the power to transform lives, communities, and ultimately, nations.

Educate, empower, transform. Improvisations on a theme for an institution - for Simmons. The life of a college as an ongoing composition - sounds like a jazz composition to me!

This concept of life as a work of art, as improvisation and reflection, also applies to you and me as individuals.

When I first read Bateson's book, I found it liberating. It said to me that all the different things I am are not only OK, they also are part of a creative process.

The most nimble improvising I was forced to do began at the age of 16, when I returned to Boston after 12 years in Guatemala. I believed I was Guatemalan. I didn't want to wear a winter coat, I missed Latin dancing, I kept trying to speak Spanish whenever I could (and I still do) - I really didn't fit in. The first improvisation was to make friends with other multicultural people like me. The second was to become an anthropologist, so that I could move back and forth between my two cultures. Both actions formed essential components of my ultimate career in medical anthropology.

My improvising continued when I was in college and I created a double major that didn't exist - Latin American studies and anthropology. I went to a woman's college, Barnard, where if you could do something, they let you, so they let me have my double major.

But I wanted more. By my senior year, I had time to take more electives, so I took opera, and history of art. All four years I sang with the Columbines (the equivalent of the Simmons Sirens), and, oh yes, I danced the highland fling with the Columbia bagpipe band at football games, and I worked my way through college as a secretary in New York's financial district.

Now, I know that so many of you in this year's new class, the class of 2010, are full of multiple interests and talents. You are artists and athletes and activists and musicians and travelers and so much more…and of course, you are scholars. The concept of composing a life means that it's OK to continue to pursue your passions, including multiple passions, as long as you focus on your major area of scholarship enough to succeed in that as well!

The creativity in our life compositions means that things that appear to be diversions can loop back to enhance our ability to pursue our primary goals.

For instance, my love of music led me to choral singing in many Chicago neighborhoods, and ultimately, opened doors and built trust for my work in public health. In particular, music created a bond between the white university professor and the Black community which transcended the natural community distrust for academics, and the biases held by a white liberal (me).

To our students here today, I repeat, follow your many passions. You never know where they will lead you, and you will be much happier living an integrated life.

To our faculty and staff, I would say that composing a life is a continuous process. I returned to the study of voice in 1985, when I was a full professor. I was no longer nervous about teaching or speeches, so it was really good for me to experience the humility of trying to improve my musicianship, and the sheer terror of actually singing a solo. In another loop back, it improved my clarity and projection as a public speaker.

This idea of intentional creativity applies to Simmons and to all of us, but Bateson also explains how it affects us potentially as women. She notes that the simultaneous demands made on women at home, at the workplace, and in our society prepare women for both nurturing and reform, and create a strong understanding of interdependence. She talks about how this teaches us to look for complementary relationships, relationships of mutual give and take.

Simmons is a women's college, but faculty, staff, and graduate students include men. Nevertheless, Simmons is a feminist college. In the short time I have been here, I have observed that both men and women at Simmons embrace concepts such as the understanding of interdependence, and the importance of complementary relationships.

This understanding of interdependence, and the importance of complementary relationships, works a number of ways for us. It prepares our Simmons women (and the Simmons graduate men get a bonus here) for success in a world which is still male-dominated. It gives us strategies for understanding people and working with them. It provides a competitive advantage for most careers.

An understanding of interdependence also means that we tend to have an idealistic focus on our world and our future. It makes us global citizens. It makes us care about Darfur and South Africa, and workers in Bolivia, and global warming and injustice, and health disparities at home and abroad. It produces the Simmons women who win awards and write books as undergraduates. It produces women like all of you, who are winning awards today, and those whom we honor for their scholastic excellence. It produces our faculty whom we stop and thank and honor at times like this convocation ceremony.

Wherever we are in our lives - beginning college, beginning a career as a college professor, well along in our profession, in positions of leadership - there is room for reflection and improvisation. There is room for the integration of the complexity of our lives on a personal level, as well as on scholarly and professional levels, to produce far greater works of art than happens when we compartmentalize.

Celebrating our complexity is celebrating our diversity, celebrating our creativity, and finally, celebrating our idealism. That is composing a life, for you, for me, and for Simmons.

Thank you.