Thoughts on Commencement Exercises

 I spent this past weekend in Omaha attending graduations. The one on Saturday was for our middle granddaughter, from eighth grade. The one on Sunday morning was for our oldest granddaughter, from high school. 

I am so proud of the girls and their classmates. They have worked so hard to get to this point. Both graduated with honors. I know the 8th grader has four more years, but it is an end and a beginning. She will be changing schools, and some of her friends and classmates will be going to different high schools. For the senior girl, she'll be starting college in the fall. She'll do fine, but it's a bigger change. A lot of decisions to make as far as majors and career aspirations.

I had a good time with family (my husband had caught a cold and stayed home). My son and daughter in law had an informal reception for the girls at their house on Saturday afternoon, with cake and snacks. I got to meet a lot of their friends. 

Now I'm going to vent a little about what the adults who plan commencements need to learn.  Homilies and speeches need to be brief and to the point. And there needs to not be too many of them. The high school graduation was on Sunday morning. It was a Catholic high school, so they had a Mass, which was appreciated, so they didn't make people miss Mass to attend the graduation. But the guest homilist did go on and on. And it was in a gym, so everyone but the parents, faculty, and students were crammed into the bleachers. After Mass were the actual graduation ceremonies. There was a speech by the principal. And of course one by the salutatorian, and the valedictorian. And another by the principal. When it was all over, everyone clapped madly. Because they were glad it was over.

The eighth grade graduation was in a church, no one had to cram into bleachers. And only one speech in addition to the homily ( which could have been briefer). But things were lower key, which was a good thing.

A brief springtime thought

I ran across this passage in an essay by Mary Harrington in First Things.  It's not the main point of her essay but sort of an elaboration of her main point (which is about using Aquinas as a philosophical starting point to stand against what she sees as some of the technocratic excesses of our present age).  But I offer this passage as a standalone occasion for contemplation:

I am indebted to the classical scholar Spencer Klavan for explaining to me that ancient Hebrew does not uses tenses as does modern English.  So where the English version says "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth," Klavan offers as an English approximation: "At the origin: God, creating heaven and earth."  In other words, a work of creation brings things into being, but it is also always active, and always complete.  Just so!  I look around me at the world springing back to life after winter, and it is easy to see at the origin God, creating heaven and creating earth.  Creating form and creating matter.

Every spring, the Resurrection, a historical event which happened many hundreds of years ago, becomes more manifest to me when I see the tulips thrusting through the greening earth, and the lilacs blossoming on the bush in our backyard.  Even the "helicopters" gyrating from the heights of our maple tree.

Public Health Preparedness

By now we have all heard of the outbreak of Hanta virus on a Dutch cruise ship.  In a way it is a kind of fire drill for how well we are prepared for an outbreak of a contagious disease.  The disease isn't particularly contagious, and it is "mostly" spread by rodents.  However it is serious and lethal, with a fatality rate of nearly 50%. And it has affected some American citizens. And it is the Andes strain, which can be transmitted person to person, though it requires close contact, and doesn't appear to spread through the air like Covid. 

There is a good discussion in an interview on The Bulwark with epidemologist, Katelyn Jetalina:

Why is the CDC Silent About the Hantavirus Outbreak? (w/ Katelyn Jetelina)

SAINT JOSEPH THE WORKER HYMNS

 Today is the feast of Saint Joseph the Worker.  My middle name is Joseph.  My father was a worker which is called techne in Greek and applies to workers in any material trade, steel workers such as my father as well as carpenter. I find some very interesting recent hymns on one website

Saint Joseph Hymn | Patron of Workers & Families 

| Healing & Protection | Feast Day Hymn |

Voice of Grace – Saints, Scripture & Sacred Songs

  

Saint Joseph Hymn | Guardian of Holy Family | 

Feast Day | March 19 | Powerful Catholic Devotional

Voice of Grace – Saints, Scripture & Sacred Songs

Saint. Joseph, Patron of Workers Hymn |

 A Prayer Song for Every Worker | St. Joseph, Bless Every Worker

Voice of Grace – Saints, Scripture & Sacred Songs