For a quarantined graduate of the Class of 2020 - whether eighth grader or doctoral student - hurling a mortar board cap or tam into the air may seem quite pointless. But, I'm curious to learn how educational institutions will celebrate their achievements virtually.
The lack of traditional ceremony is one of a million shards of our kaleidoscopic reality that shifted once officials admitted we had a global pandemic on our hands and better wash those hands and go home. Home schooling, food shopping like hazmat techs, loss of jobs and a vision of the future throws us off balance, too.
Courageous Lives
While safely ensconsed at home, we are humbled by the sight of courageous lives as they appear on our television screens – doctors, nurses and first responders running toward gravely ill and infectious people, some rescuers dying for want of protective gear. We listen to experts sorting Covid-19 data based on a dearth of testing and pleading in a daily drumbeat for tracking devices to move us beyond social distancing and protect personal privacy.
Lives at Stake
Even while turning off quacks like Alex Jones selling bad medicine and campaign rallies from the White House Press Room pushing lethal treatment options, we fear snake oil will be tested by true believers.
Naysayers dismiss wearing face masks as the province of “smug liberals.” How can anyone see my expression if I wear a face mask? I'd call my expression outraged or incredulous or law-abiding. I recoil from the snarling faces of those who think aiming assault weapons at our heads ends the pandemic dilemma.
Lives Worth Living
Such is our troubling time. Fortunately, we can Google old commencement speeches and consider the ideas expressed by notable stars in our galaxy, meant to encourage graduates to go forward into the unknown. Time to roll out four of my favorites:
Meryl Streep, Barnard (2010)
"I can assure that awards have very little bearing on my own personal happiness. My own sense of well-being and purpose in the world. That comes from studying the world feelingly, with empathy in my work. It comes from staying alert and alive and involved in the lives of the people that I love and the people in the wider world who need my help."
J. K. Rowling, Harvard University (2008)
"I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged."
Aaron Sorkin, Syracuse University, 2012
“Decisions are made by those who show up. Don't ever forget that you're a citizen of this world. Don't ever forget that you’re a citizen of this world, and there are things you can do to lift the human spirit, things that are easy, things that are free, things that you can do every day: civility, respect, kindness, character. You’re too good for schadenfreude, you’re too good for gossip and snark, you’re too good for intolerance — and since you're walking into the middle of a presidential election, it’s worth mentioning that you’re too good to think people who disagree with you are your enemy. … Don’t ever forget that a small group of thoughtful people can change the world. It’s the only thing that ever has.”
Barbara Kingsolver, DePauw University, 1994
“It’s not up to you to save the world. That’s the job of every living person who likes the idea of a future. But I’m going to go out on a limb here and give you one little piece of advice, and that is, like the idea of a future. Believe you have it in you to make the world look better rather than worse seven generations from now. Figure out what that could look like. And then if you’re lucky, you’ll find a way to live inside that hope, running down its hallways, touching the walls on both sides.”
Time on Our Thoroughly Washed Hands
Thinking of remarkable human beings soothes the spirit; so I pencil that search in my Outlook calendar and read about lives well lived. In March 2018, I wrote of women who inspired me, first hand knowledge of much that is good in the world. On Being a Woman - 32 Facets of Herstory
For now, fingers crossed for the welfare of the thousand cadets of the United States Military Academy's Class of 2020 as they follow the orders of their Commander-in-Chief and assemble at West Point for his commencement stump speech. I will also busy myself like the army of mask-makers around the globe. With a look toward a brighter future, I'll fashion my mask to read VOTE 2020.
Tumbling, Youth Sports Poster by Ed Morrisey