Carolyn Buck Luce

Managing Partner Imaginal Labs LLC. Global Pharmaceutical Sector Leader at Ernst & Young, Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association Woman of the Year 2012, Adjunct Professor at Columbia University, Board Member at the Center for Work-Life Policy and New York Women’s Foundation. Views expressed here are my own.

Honoring Lives of Commitment on May Day

May 1. May Day. For centuries and millennia, May Day has been celebrated around the world for many reasons - as the rites of spring, the celebration of summer, and to honor the international labor movement. On this bright, refulgent May Day in New York City, over 500 of us gathered together to celebrate the lives of commitment of three extraordinary courageous leaders who have been supported by the work of Auburn Theological Seminary - - Congresswoman and veteran Tammy Duckworth, Spiritual leader and activist Sister Simone Campbell, and Philanthropist and social entrepreneur Lauren Bush Lauren.

Auburn’s mission is to equip bold and resilient leaders with the tools they need to bridge religious and political divides, build community, pursue justice and heal the world. They achieve this through their efforts to educate and support leaders through research, media training and movement building that uphold and connect the core values of the multi-faith movement for justice.

Here are just a few words of insight and inspiration that I took away from these courageous and god-filled leaders:

Congresswoman Tammy Duckworth, who was a Blackhawk helicopter pilot in Iraq who lost both her legs and partial use of an arm and was awarded a Purple Heart for her valor, fights valiantly for the rights of veterans and all people in America to have the chance to participate in the American Dream. She spoke about the little acts of grace by individuals and the big acts fo grace by our government that has sustained her from her childhood living on food stamps and 25cent school lunches to her recovery at Walter Reed hospital. And of the gift of fearlessness that she learned from her experiences in Iraq that allow her to commit to fight all the necessary political battles ahead. And of her first hand experience of “no one left behind” by her fellow soldiers on the battlefield that drives her courage to fight for all human dignity and economic justice for all.

Sister Simone Campbell is the Executive Director of NETWORK in Washington and is known as a religious leader, attorney and poet with extensive experience in public policy and advocacy for systemic change. She has been very much in the news as the leader of the Nuns on the Bus tour that raised awareness, took on the Vatican and changed minds and votes in Washington on issues from health care reform, to immigration and economic justice. Sister Simone reminded us that the preamble to the US Constitution that starts with “We the People” concludes with “…to promote the general Welfare and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity…” Which means that our job doesn’t stop with us - - but includes making sure that we are creating a just and secure world for our children and grandchildren. And that the role of policy making in Washington and in the State Houses is not to secure and protect profits but to shape the future for posterity.

Sister Simone has not always agreed with the Vatican and other institutional religious leaders but sees that they are all part of “one body, many members” and they each have a role to play. She brought down the house by identifying her unique role as “stomach acid” which is a critical element in the ability to digest food.

Lauren Bush Lauren is the CEO and Co-Founder of FEED Projects, a charitable company with the mission to create good products that help feed the world. She is the granddaughter and niece of two American Presidents and the daughter in law of one of the world’s great fashion families, had combined her talents and her heart to create a model for ethical business practices and products which provides nutritious, life-saving meals to millions of hungry school children worldwide. Lauren is a great example of “conscious capitalism” where the triple bottom line is achievable. She believes that the millennial generation and consumers around the global will demand that capitalism take responsibility for the short and longer term impact they have on all stakeholders and the CEOs who don’t take that to heart will be left behind.

It was a great way to usher in May Day and celebrate the lives of commitment of courageous leaders. Courage, after all, comes from the word heart - coeur - and it means to go forth with your heart in your mouth at times of fear, uncertainty and doubt. And to do that on behalf not just of ourselves, but for posterity.

Happy May Day All!