The Rejoicing

I attended a unique earthling ceremony this weekend.  The main participants dressed up in extraordinary hats and flowing black gowns, men and women alike.  Restless spectators filled the pavilion to listen to a series of speeches, impatient for their chance to make noise.  At last, while each individual participant was called for a victory lap (Gampel5.11.3) around the arena floor, their family groups howled from the stadium.  Howl after howl went up in a stream for an hour, no family quite able to one-up the preceding howl, until the paraders returned to their seats, and then the families rose and howled once more, together, in pride and celebration and tribal love.

We long to prove how much we love our kids, to voice how proud we are of their work and studies over the last four years.  We need to stand together among strangers with equal love and pride, for this common moment, this intersection where a ceremony can mark a completion, a transition.  We want to witness the step through the portal, and feel the proof.  We can never go back in time, not any of us.  We only go forward.

To all of you graduates unpacking the boxes and laundry baskets you hauled home from your dorms yesterday, I wish you well.  Congratulations.  Remember, as you sort your laundry alone, far from your former suitemates and confidantes, your families love you.  We believe in you.  We will be there for you always, even when you no longer need us.  Especially then.