Swinging south over the Mass Ave bridge, I saw groups of parent-looking people in solemn in suits and dresses moving with all due haste to the Cambridge side take their place in the ceremony.
It's a celebration of the hard-earned state of preparedness of these studentsThey know much, are ready to do much. The efforts (hope, money, hard work) of parents, school and the young people themselves bring these graduates, equipped and poised, to the brink of...
Many already know, but really nobody knows. My own children have been taken by surprise, for good and ill, by what they've encountered in adulthood compared to all that led up to their own graduations. Me too. Perhaps everyone.
I wish I could have done more or better, but the future is a country that has to be entered to be encountered, and it's changing all the time. The guidebooks and the pictures offer itineraries and popular attractions, sometimes out of date, but we're not tourists in our own lives. Everybody we meet is a first-timer too. There are bridges and abysses, certain New England spring days (such as commencement day) and violent storms, edens and expulsions. It's adventure over and over.
Minus the mortar boards, each day is a graduation. The what now? question needs answering again. Am I prepared for what is coming next? What I'm convinced is this: always waiting to meet us as, diplomas in hand, we march down the aisle and out of the portal tent to the applause of our well-wishers, are opportunities for lastingness in deeds of friendship, exploration and hospitality. So help me God-in-love, here I come.
Many already know, but really nobody knows. My own children have been taken by surprise, for good and ill, by what they've encountered in adulthood compared to all that led up to their own graduations. Me too. Perhaps everyone.
I wish I could have done more or better, but the future is a country that has to be entered to be encountered, and it's changing all the time. The guidebooks and the pictures offer itineraries and popular attractions, sometimes out of date, but we're not tourists in our own lives. Everybody we meet is a first-timer too. There are bridges and abysses, certain New England spring days (such as commencement day) and violent storms, edens and expulsions. It's adventure over and over.
Minus the mortar boards, each day is a graduation. The what now? question needs answering again. Am I prepared for what is coming next? What I'm convinced is this: always waiting to meet us as, diplomas in hand, we march down the aisle and out of the portal tent to the applause of our well-wishers, are opportunities for lastingness in deeds of friendship, exploration and hospitality. So help me God-in-love, here I come.
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