So, graduation, they tell me, is a momentous event in the life of the graduate. Overall, it felt like a bunch of pomp, circumstance, and pageantry. I am not one to demand that people pay attention to me and my accomplishments, so the entire day went against the grain.
However, within the ceremony, there were a few incredibly significant experiences. During the commencement address, I actually began to cry. The commencement speaker, I am told, is the best we have had in the history of Lees-McRae. His name is Dr. Walter Earl Fluker, and is from Morehouse College. His speech was entitled, "A Call to Ethical Leadership." I took two gems away from this speech; the notion of the intersection and life worlds/ systems.
Midway through the speech, Dr. Fluker asked the graduating class to stand and close their eyes. He asked us to imagine the busiest intersection we could. Immediately, I was standing in Chennai, India with the cars and the rickshaws and the motorcycles and the bicycles and the cows and the pedestrians and the taxis and the complete lack of any sort of agreed upon traffic laws. I could smell the city and the lights flashed around my head, calling me in one thousand directions. The tears welled up in my eyes, as the imagined experience overtook my spirit and swayed me in ways I was not expecting.
The image of standing in the middle of this dangerous and pulsing intersection was the perfect fit for where I am in my life right now. I am standing in the middle of this intersection, viewing it in 360 vision. Sometimes I am frightened, but most of the time I cannot comprehend or escape the beauty; human life pulsing as I stand completely still and quiet enough to hear my own heart.
Dr. Fluker also spoke of the distinction between life worlds and systems. Life worlds are the minute ways in which we choose to live our lives each day. The clothes we wear, the music we listen to, the food we eat. All of these are used to define an existence and create an understanding of who we are as individuals and in relation to one another. Systems, on the other hand, are made of money, power, and technology. Systems do not care about our life worlds. Systems both enable and disable life worlds, as they create the conditions for choice and freedom, but immediately put restrictions on those conditions.
Dr. Fluker urged us to see beyond our tiny lives, and to understand that there is great suffering in the world. He wanted us to understand that we, the citizens of the United Stated, may not be in the position of power forever, and that is it through understanding, communicating, and developing an empathetic capacity that we will learn to inhabit our globalized world in more ethical ways.
I was the first person to stand upon the completion of his speech, and the rest of the packed gym followed. It was truly moving, and I hope that our graduating class took the time to open their ears and eyes to the reality of the world we are about to inherit.
Sociologists Extraordinaire:
The Challenge:
Psych You Out!
The Select Few (Cyclists):
More photos to come, as I more effectively commodify the Mother's Day experience. So many more words to come.
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