Commencement 2000

Greetings:

For the sake of completeness I am posting the commencement speech to the graduating class of Newfound Regional HS in the year 2000. As mentioned in the previous posting it was a speech that I had, uncharacteristically, worked on for many weeks to ‘fine tune it’. Not helping the situation, at the time, was the promise of bad weather and the move of the ceremonies into the stuffy, very warm gymnasium.

I wore my custom made Italian suit (boy is that another story!). We sat on the stage waiting for the graduates to make their way into the hall. At each seat was a plastic bottle of water. I had never been a fan of bottled water so I was ill prepared to figure out, on the spot, how to open it and use the handy-dandy dispenser for sipping. I tore off the outer wrap; struggled with the nozzle and then proceeded to spill an appreciable amount on my light gray, linen suit. The water stain did not look like it came from a bottle but from me!!

Observing all this was my good friend, Bob Miller, the Guidance Director, who advised me to go into the locker room and use a drier. Quickly I agreed this was a great idea, rushed inside the phys ed teacher’s office, into the locker room and then realized the drier was the one on the wall - about five feet off the ground and not easily applied to my soaked thighs. So I boldly removed my pants and stood there waving them under the blasting hot air. It became readily apparent that this was a magical solution as the water vestige vanished in two minutes. Had anyone come in at the time they would have been hard put not to die of hysterics. It did, however, cause me to break into hearty, relieved laughter thus calming my nerves in preparation for my commencement speech.

Gini was another story. From her perspective from the audience I had been calmly sitting on the stage and now was nowhere to be seen as the music announced the entrance of the graduates. I was still unaccounted for, the class president came up on the stage to greet the audience and introduce the class. Eventually I was seen scrambling behind her to regain my seat in my freshly dried suit.

I do agree that this speech is somewhat involved and could make your head hurt, that is if you had not already decided to zone out. Many of the graduates did enjoy it as did several members of the audience. I am sure that there were many who did not.

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Graduation 2000

Thirty two years ago at my own high school graduation I gave the valedictory for our class. It was a time of high energy, unrest, creativity, dreams, ideals, horror, consciousness-raising and naivete. The theme of my speech was: ‘Create and be responsible for what you create…’. It was touted as a formula for life and success.

So now, no longer seventeen years old, another speech is to be given to graduates. The world seems to have maintained its atmosphere of high energy but for earning power instead of flower power; horror and unrest are something we do not want to have anything to do with while claiming concern for those in the midst; dreams and creativity are assessed for their applicability to the internet and NASDAQ; and naivete is a quaint notion that does not even survive the Teletubbies.

So how does ‘create and be responsible for what you create’ fare in this world and from a more experienced , perhaps, mature, perspective? Well in terms of prognostication it couldn’t be farther from state of the art. Amazingly in this culture at this time it is always someone else’s fault. ‘…How did I know the coffee was going to be so hot when I spilled it on my lap when I was driving?...’ to ‘…you cannot mark that wrong because you made the question so confusing!...’ So perversely I must take responsibility for missing the point and vow to be more responsible in considering other people’s conditions when I make demands on them.

Well, what about the ‘create’ part then? Are we in a new Renaissance of thought and production? If we are talking about the august microchip we are certainly creating new definitions of how many additions, subtractions and comparisons can be done in a billionth of a second. If we are talking about the world of finance, our creativity is unbounded when we sign checks for the Big Dig or make initial public offerings for businesses that would challenge Seinfeld’s sense of being about nothing.

Sorry about the jaded commentary but I wanted somehow to make a connection to what inspired me back then to what inspires me now. At the same time there must be a reason for why I feel consistent with that statement made so many years ago uttered in urgency and as a challenge.

It is here that Newfound comes into the picture. What an atmosphere in which to create. At first I thought this would be done through the big picture. Within two years of arriving here I was at the administrative level negotiating with the state of New Hampshire for grants and programs for our district. During that time I became familiar with how all our schools and communities operate. There is a lot of competence in our region, you have been fortunate.

So in creating what some referred to as a technology empire and others as ‘smoke and mirrors’, I wandered through your classrooms. You were probably in the first grade and you were the ‘students’ in the big picture. This pattern continued for about ten years before I realized that although I had come to know the staff, school board, budget committee and community support members, I had very little idea who ‘the students’ were. Faces were familiar but names and their personae were not. Luckily I was able to coach basketball and now track and some of you came into focus. Ultimately, though, the joy of what education could offer was missing. So I felt responsible to do something about it. As a full time teacher for the past three years we have shared the same world and I am very pleased to be a part of it.

The world you have made here is a good one. There are many districts who would love to have the atmosphere we have here. I will always be impressed with the way most of you treat each other. There is a sensitivity and action that at times we wish you would apply to your school work but beneficently provide for each other. This is a good thing (pause) These things you say and do matter very much.

But now we wave our magic wand and…ding…you now have to deal with a lot more than homework. You are expected to say and do things that carry a lot more responsibility with them.

What is it that you feel when you respond to these expectations? Are you anxious to let someone know what it is, or are you giving them what you think they want? Have you developed enough sense of self to know how to gauge that response? At times high school seems about performing to a set of standards fixed by the world of education. So your choices are conditionally limited to these expectations. As staff we spend many hours examining and developing these standards. We even feel enlightened occasionally. Our concern is rooted in an appreciation of skills and processes that we value highly. They represent mastery.

In achieving your diploma you have mastered certain skills and processes. This was very responsible but have you created anything in pursuit of these definite standards? I think that there is something unique in your possession of your creation and that is your self and sense of self. It is through your choices and actions that ultimately provide the definition of yourself.

Believe me… we, parents, staff, relatives and friends, have tried to help you with this. But it truly is your creation and no other’s. It is yours to determine how to feel satisfied, happy and accomplished. This realization is constantly challenged by everyone else’s version of what should be done and how to do it.

So here is the real challenge, perhaps even a contradiction. How do we be ourselves in the midst of everyone else being themselves? How can someone else know what it is that is driving me and what I need to feel fulfilled and successful? What is it that I need to be aware in order to allow that feeling for someone else? Well, if it comes down to a curriculum or a rubric I think we are all in serious trouble.

We will get back to that… So… what is truly great about this moment today? Let us just be this moment – (pause) –
There is no assignment due, no deadlines to be met, the future is for later and maybe we should start snapping our fingers to the beat of now and treasure it. (graduates snapping fingers) Dig it.

The idea of something being valuable for just feeling it is almost a cheat. Let us feel good about ourselves here and now because of this day, the ceremony… the ritual. There is no necessity to explain why, it just feels right to take it all in. But slowly, oh so slowly that gambit of responsibility interferes with our idyll and time emerges to measure our response.

So engage, create once again and make it yours. The perfection of the timeless moment now a prisoner of memory. What you do does matter. It matters in your development, it matters to the rest of us who are looking for support and opportunity to present our own creations. It matters to the well being of the planet and the universe. For as long as one moment yields to the next, you are the dynamic providing meaning and purpose.

Compared to our luxurious indulgence of no time and no responsibility this may seem contradictory. What is there in continuing our efforts in a responsible fashion? Hey, maybe it’s joy. Maybe it is seeing your child or those in your care frolicking. Or, dare I say, because you like yourself better when you see yourself meet your responsibilities. Or because you disengage that ongoing argument with yourself, that ceaseless criticizing of yourself and begin to feel currents and breezes that you had never noticed before. Forces not of your own making available somehow for … what?!

Let us review here. You have somehow survived school standards, your personal life, the interaction with other’s lives to be at this graduation ceremony. Some guy who you thought would be an interesting speaker is rambling about creating, being responsible and just enjoying the moment. He keeps saying that what I do really matters but I probably will not know why. This is school all over again.

Check this out…

When you do things that bring you joy, simple and otherwise; when you like yourself for what you are doing instead of disliking yourself for what you are not doing; when you have emerged as a person operating in the climate of the universe, something interesting happens. You have qualified for the ultimate experience. You can now be caught up in some of those breezes and currents that you may not have noticed before. You can now use them to maneuver as if they were cosmic tides. The extreme among you may use them as cosmic waves for surfing.

And in this manner of pursuit, sense of self has been supplemented by something greater. It might be that you have tapped into the daily rhythm of a life that suits you and those around you. It might be that time and fate have conspired to afford you opportunity and wonder. It might be the sensation of self surrendering into another person, another place or another existence.

What ever it is for you, the meticulous building process of school whereby it was important that we name the tools, the components, the procedures will now be something else. The future, instead of threatening to be an elaborate burden of creations and actions is now a transcendent flow. What could be occurring is that you have tapped the essence of the universe.

So will you be so bold as to embrace this process under the scrutiny of today’s values and pressures? Perhaps it would be easier to adjust to earning power and follow a financial plan and hope that friends and family will happen along the way. Or will you try to avoid it all because none of it makes any sense?

I propose to you, no, I challenge you to take all the efforts so far, the self that you have developed, to answer the responsibilities of your life, to create in a stylized fashion all with one real purpose. The purpose of attaining a sense of being beyond yourself … It is here at Newfound that I have found a flow outside myself. Your actions in class, on the track, in the hallways, the competency of the staff are the currents and the breezes. From Tim Mahurin who, to some of you, may be a face on a plaque in the science wing to the daily ministrations of Mary Gallagher, with these parameters Newfound has shown me how to maintain my commitment to my challenge thirty two years ago. It is your development that inspires the transcendence of self. To me this is the ability to love and in case you haven’t noticed you are deep in its midst now. Thank you for your attention.

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And in the famous words of Rick Nye: “You are such a windbag!!!!”