I love commencement addresses, and all the ceremonies that mark transformation—convocations, weddings, commencements. These are occasions that ask us to pause and take stock: to mark the moment in our making, to reflect on the imprint that love—for a place, a person, or an institution-has—has left on us. As a longtime student of commencement addresses, there are few others I’ve encountered (besides, perhaps, Peter Dinklage’s) that meet the moment in words and spirit like Jonathan Lethem’s 2005 address to Bennington’s graduating class.

For more than a year after its delivery, I drew on his words across communications—from admissions emails to magazine excerpts—and ultimately in this piece: a quiet, meditative booklet designed with Carol June Jessop to honor the speech and the spirit of the place. It was mailed to graduates and to lead donors that year as both a keepsake and a love letter to Bennington.