Recently, the McFamily visited Texas State University in San Marcos so Kaylyn could receive a Rising Star award for writing. The guest speaker (a children's author who I don't remember) advised the aspiring scribes to fully engage in their studies through college. She then went on to say that when she was in college, she "majored in Enthusiasm."
At that point, my bride leaned over to me and whispered, "I didn't even know that was an option when I was in college."
Kelli and I went to a few different colleges for higher learning. It's a long story for another day. However, we graduated from two different schools that shared a campus with a third.
At the University of Denver, where I began, I was an English Writing Major. But transferred to the University of Colorado, where I was a double major...Enthusiasm and Optimism. It was a humanities program, so don't ask to see my grades in the Sciences. The Happy Arts Study Program classes were offered in the Enthusiasm Wing of Turner Frown/Upside Down Hall, which was adjecent to the Marketing & Public Relations Labs where Kelli spent a lot of her time, so I was surprised by her lack of awareness.
Last weekend, our church honored our graduating seniors in high school and college. Our pastor is seeing his oldest son graduate. And I got all lumpy-throated watching that rite of passage. I'm apparently becoming more Sensitive as I get older. Maybe I should look into post graduate work in Sensitivity. That'd be a great field of doctoral study for me.
When I graduated high school (16 years ago!), the school had a competition for the commencement speech. I fancied myself a writer even back then, and also a competitor, so I took a stab at it. The problem was, I had yet to discover my speaking voice. So I chickened out, and withdrew from the race. I think I cited a pulled hamstring. The speech teacher later told me I would have won, which both affirmed and terrified me. The actual speech was given by a good friend named Stacy, who is today a bank president in our home town. She did a fine job and apparently took some of her own advice to chase her dreams and never give up. I don't know if she ever majored in Enthusiasm, but it doesn't seem to have hampered her.
You are like Birds Leaving the Nest
So anyway, once again, it's graduation season. And what better time to receive the wisdom shared by today's utmost philosphers, celebrities:
Robert Langdon/Tom Hanks gives 2005 Vassar grads a clue to the "Code" of life...in his speech, The Power of Four. Is it a coincidence that he'd share this provocative speech at a school that began for women only, then leave barely a year later on a quest to prove that the Holy Grail of Jesus is actually Mary Magdelene? As the Rabbis say, "'coincidence' isn't a kosher word."
A year earlier, Fake Newsman Jon Stewart received an honorary doctorate in Pretend Mass Communications from alma mater William & Mary, and paid them back with the same left-leaning humor that has doubled as "informative reporting" for the emergent generation. I like Stewart as a funnyman...I just don't rely upon him as my Rosetta Stone to decipher my understanding of global events.
Continuing in the WayBack machine, we arrive at the classic 2003 Will Farrell Harvard Class day speech. And I hear that in his upcoming movie Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, his two sons are named "Walker," and "Texas Ranger."
Three years earlier, Conan delivered an address to the same school's 2000 grads. I guess the philosophy is that the best remedy to the massive debt they've incurred by attending Harvard is to help them leave with a smile, so its time to bring in the clowns.
Finally, though, for the most surreal moment, we go back to the future to the present, and we enjoy Jodie Foster, rapping Eminem:
That, my friends, is the working definition of pomp and circumstance.
wow.
May 26, 2006 6:16 AM