Commencing Countdown

Class of '25, let me begin with the timely words of American essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson--no, no let's not start there.

Rather, as my good friend, Bruce Springsteen sang--well, enough of that poppycock.

Confucius--

James Baldwin--

Dorothy Parker--

So, indeed, today for you is a sort of launching. A launching from where you have been grounded to up and out of here. 

But let's not reach for the stars. Let's not try to lasso the cosmic.  

Given my age--71--and yours, so young, to me at least, I wouldn't--don't--know how to talk to you other than to push my mind back 50 years through to the filing system that is my memories--not literally of course--and sweep aside the cobwebs and dust to my launching--metaphorically--different time and space--not that I trust the validity of my memories, but now I am straying.

Empathy is difficult given how differently you may think about the world--uncertain? Excited? Resolved? Bored? All at the same time? I may have been in all of those states. But it was half a century ago.

Elon Musk--

No, not-- I, I won't ask for your empathy. 

Instead, let's work instead on extending sympathy to those in need--in their sorrow, in their grief, in their disappointment, in their despair, in their loneliness, in their pain. 

Listen to one another.  Look one another in the eyes.  

And here's the clincher. Believe them.

Iris Murdoch--

Be good to yourself. Be good to each other.

Farewell.