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Robbed of My Right of Passage
In this Covid-19 time, there’s a group of celebrants who feels the loss of their special day more than others: Graduates. With no stage, no diploma in hand, and no procession, it’s hard to feel the same sense of accomplishment and closure.
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The Commencement Address I’ll Never Get to Give
Graduations mean commencement addresses. Most of which are eminently forgettable, containing feel-good charges to go do great stuff and change the world. But in my experience, they’re always given by men, who are some kind of celebrity. I am neither. But I have a few thoughts on practical life lessons that newly-minted graduates might use. “Hey graduates, congratulations. You made it to the cap-and-gown stage. Not without a lot of help and prodding and prayers and frustration from your parents though, right? Thank them. There’s not a single thing you are or do or have that they didn’t have a part in. Thank them again. “Speaking of thanking, one of…
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Top Three Things NOT to Wish a Graduate
1. Congratulations on going to college. Education is the key to success. Of course, this depends on what you mean by “success.” A college education probably will enable you to get a higher paying job. But if by “success” you mean a “happy life” it will not guarantee you that. We have this on the authority of both Jesus and Harvard. In 1938 Harvard commissioned the Grant Study to answer the question, “What does it take to live a happy life—a life of human flourishing?” A faculty team of doctors, sociologists, anthropologists, psychologists and psychiatrists followed 268 of the brightest and best and most well-adjusted Harvard sophomores (including…
