Commencement Speech
This weekend was graduation day for many colleges and universities. Yesterday Lori and I made a brief appearance at the grad party of a young man who was in our younger son’s graduating class in high school.
As I was getting cleaned up and dressed for the evening, a simple sentence came into my head to share with the young man when I saw him: “You never have to grow up, but you must always keep learning.” Reflecting on this statement, it does seem to cover a lot of ground.
Looking back to my own graduation, I do recall some degree of dread around entering “the real world.” This meant taking on a certain amount of drudgery, of being geographically separated from my college friends, paying bills, performing tasks at work that were basic, repetitive, perhaps mind-numbing. This daily grind I am describing is summed up by this commercial from the mid-80s.
With many more years down the road, I am pleased to report that even though certain boring, repetitive tasks are unavoidable, we humans are able to master them rather easily. This allows us to get back to horsing around and amusing ourselves much in the same way we would amuse ourselves in our youth. In fact, consciously trying to channel more child-like open-mindedness has become a key to retaining access to my own creativity and imagination over the years.
So, we don’t have to “grow up.” It’s entirely optional.
But we always, always, always have to keep learning. The world is changing too fast to think that we will ever fully know what we need to know. There may have been such a time at the apex of the post-World War II “goldilocks” period, when the charts tracking our prosperity were all moving up and to the right, and the world was relatively peaceful. But that period is behind us. The world is more dynamic and uncertain today, and sadly less peaceful. So we need to keep learning, using our innate childlike creativity to navigate this dynamism.
So there it is - a commencement address in one sentence.
For those of you wondering why I’ve made no mention of our dog Nova thus far, it’s because we had to say goodbye to her last Wednesday. As sad as it was, Lori and I know that we “stuck the landing,” interceding to end our girl’s discomfort quickly, before it became too much to ask (while maximizing our time together). That sweet pooch had an optimal life, given the hand that she had been dealt, health-wise. I hope that we can all be so lucky.
Sunday Supper
The last couple of weekends, I’ve purchased two bunches of beets, prepping and eating them in their entirety - roots, stems and greens. At $4/bunch, this is an amazing value. For eight bucks I can roast a half-sheet pan of the roots, all the while sautéing a big pan of the greens and stems with some onion and garlic, finishing them with a little acid, like lemon juice or some type of vinegar (I like a couple dashes of Tabasco as well). This recipe for Sautéed Beet Greens is a great basic approach to cooking beet greens. These Lemon-Pepper Chicken Breasts are fun. This Spicy Ground Turkey and Snap Peas looks healthy and leans into Spring peas.
Sunday Music
Play this Jazz Piano playlist, and you’ll get an idea of how cool it is to have Lori sitting at the baby grand in your living room. This collaboration between and Dixie Chicks and James Taylor is worth a listen, too. Enjoy!
If you know anyone who might like this essay, please share it with them.
Have a great week ahead! You can do anything you set your mind to. Let me know how I can help.
Peace & Love,