Giving Thanks

Each of us has so many reasons to be thankful, and the promise that NOVA holds out to our community is at the top of my list. This promise is realized thanks to you, and I am grateful for all that you bring to our students and our college.

In this spirit, I share one of my favorite poems for the season, “When Giving is All We Have,” by Alberto Rios. He is the Regents Professor of English at Arizona State University and was both a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and the inaugural Poet Laureate of Arizona. You can also find a video of Rios reading his poem here. I love this poem because it speaks plainly yet beautifully about the transformational power that giving has: the ability of every single personal act of generosity, big and small, to make “something greater from the difference.”

I thank you for the difference you make at NOVA and wish you a holiday filled with the wonder and warmth of friends and family!

When Giving is All We Have

Alberto Rios

            One river gives
            Its journey to the next.

We give because someone gave to us.
We give because nobody gave to us.

We give because giving has changed us.
We give because giving could have changed us.

We have been better for it,
We have been wounded by it—

Giving has many faces: It is loud and quiet,
Big, though small, diamond in wood-nails.

Its story is old, the plot worn and the pages too,
But we read this book, anyway, over and again:

Giving is, first and every time, hand to hand,
Mine to yours, yours to mine.

You gave me blue and I gave you yellow.
Together we are simple green. You gave me

What you did not have, and I gave you
What I had to give—together, we made

Something greater from the difference.