Stepping Up and Out
Yesterday, Jeanne and I attended a graduation-like ceremony for our son Benjamin - a junior at Fenway High School. The event, called "Stepping Up," took place in the Tower Auditorium at MASS College of Art. His class consists of about 70 kids so the size of the room seemed just right.
As is the tradition at this 25 year old Boston pilot school, graduating seniors line up opposite their junior colleagues, offer a bit of advice, and hand them a candle. It's a torch passing ritual that harkens back thousands of years. Because modern fire codes don't allow for lit torches in college auditoriums, the students used battery driven candles.
The senior's advice centered mostly on "working hard" and "being yourself." Juniors were warned to meet their senior project deadlines as early as possible. "Uh oh," I thought, my family has turned procrastination into an art form.
I was impressed by one student who quoted Leonard Peltier: "You don't have to be perfect to be holy..."
For a while now, I've been impressed also by Ben's ability to maintain his individuality and ideals in a culture that prizes - and often demands - conformity and obedience. It's not just the mohawk and earings; the kid has progressive values. I suppose his parents have something to do with that.
Roots and wings. That's what we give our children. The skills to fly the nest AND the keys to the condo, just in case.
We've also talked about not feeding him so he won't grow so big, but it's too late. He's reached six feet tall already and can look straight into my eyes. And when I look, I see me and my father and Ben's grandfather in there. Weird, huh? (Ed. Uh, that's the same person twice. I think he meant his grandfather, not Ben's.)
Best of luck to the rest of the graduating classes and the soon to be seniors, all of whom are going to have to re-evaluate their ties to corporate America and its wasteful, destructive appetite.
And start behaving as though community and kinship means something more than who's on the MySpace/FaceBook friend's list.
As is the tradition at this 25 year old Boston pilot school, graduating seniors line up opposite their junior colleagues, offer a bit of advice, and hand them a candle. It's a torch passing ritual that harkens back thousands of years. Because modern fire codes don't allow for lit torches in college auditoriums, the students used battery driven candles.
The senior's advice centered mostly on "working hard" and "being yourself." Juniors were warned to meet their senior project deadlines as early as possible. "Uh oh," I thought, my family has turned procrastination into an art form.
I was impressed by one student who quoted Leonard Peltier: "You don't have to be perfect to be holy..."
For a while now, I've been impressed also by Ben's ability to maintain his individuality and ideals in a culture that prizes - and often demands - conformity and obedience. It's not just the mohawk and earings; the kid has progressive values. I suppose his parents have something to do with that.
Roots and wings. That's what we give our children. The skills to fly the nest AND the keys to the condo, just in case.
We've also talked about not feeding him so he won't grow so big, but it's too late. He's reached six feet tall already and can look straight into my eyes. And when I look, I see me and my father and Ben's grandfather in there. Weird, huh? (Ed. Uh, that's the same person twice. I think he meant his grandfather, not Ben's.)
Best of luck to the rest of the graduating classes and the soon to be seniors, all of whom are going to have to re-evaluate their ties to corporate America and its wasteful, destructive appetite.
And start behaving as though community and kinship means something more than who's on the MySpace/FaceBook friend's list.
Labels: graduation, roots and wings, stepping up
posted by I.B.I.S. Radio at
8:14 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home