Rounding the bases of life with a high school diploma, a degree, or some technical expertise that enhances your meaning and life, and the common good in tough times is worthy of praise, for sure.
Congratulations!
However you may have been nicknamed or labeled while growing up, remember, that is far from all of who you are as a person created in God's image and likes as the Good Book says.
People tend to categorize, pigeon-hole and need to keep you "small" in the eyes of the world, or, the local, competitive market. Some want to divide and conquer and be one-up-on you. Go figure!
You are bigger, brighter, better! Studies show that babies know the difference between good and evil at six months, I'm told. Even the animal world has a moral make-up, scientists says. They feel compassion for the anguishing human being.
Be big from within your best self while the world wants to you be a super star who rakes in the cash at any price, who wants you to be Hollywood's prettiest, with a small soul inside however, so often. Don't be short on service, sitting with the mobs when your voice needs to rise. Even if you're solo in stepping up to the plate for the common good. Be unafraid to stand alone. Leadership is like that!
Believe it!
Be all you can be in the game of life. But, amid the trek, triumph and success that graduation may bring, be fair, kind, and looking out for the underdog. Many fit that fact today. Thousands are down and out, without work, without purpose in some cases, unsure, even lost in the culture that formed and shaped them. Speak up when others choose to sit like Eleanor Josaitis and the late Father William Cunningham who stood when most sat during Detroit's unrest and riots.
Some may lack ethics and morality in the race of a dog-eat-dog world of war raging the world over.
Remember the battle, nevertheless, here at home:
Hungry people near and far,
heartache in need of hope hovering here,
attachment disorders that bring their own package of consequences,
drugs and alcohol dependency,
homelessness, joblessness, those few without faith even.
All of those social ills to face while nations itch to use nuclear weapons. You can help carve a saner path than primitive ways of settling conflict and war. You can! Packed with patience you can change the course and create a new chapter for peace. Hawks like the Henry Kissinger of years ago, now calls for an end to building nuclear bombs by all.
Altruism - that selfless giving can still reign supreme despite what the culture says.
Authenticity and integrity are crowns to wear wisely and well within one's heart to practice
daily.
Roots and relationships require taking time for others, including
courtesy and the "courtliness" of compassion and care for all that is fading fast in this society.
Connections with other humans require a pause to greet and welcome your neighbor and
passers-by in the middle of a huge shortage of trust bouncing about everywhere it seems.
After all that is said and done, remember that you can morph and mend a broken heart at home, the job you land, the post-graduate school classmate you sit next to, the neighbor without work, the vulnerable youngster looking for support, the older resident who is ignored, forgotten and perceived as unproductive now after decades of service for the common good and welfare of all.
Me.
Me seems to be in. And, we and the society, the subdivision one lives in, the cliques formed to exclude, point to narcissistic personality disorder, to use a clinical phrase.
Me. Myself. And, I.
They last for a limited amount of time. They grow old fast. Without selfless energy they end up empty, dry and without life.
Dear grad:
Remember you are more than "me, myself and I." You are part of the story that came before and will continue after your stunning stint for some decades here. You are part of the global pie, larger than who you may have been raised to be, or told to be, or, made to feel to be, for sure, but, you are a child of the universe, an individual with dignity, yet, one of many trying to make it these days in a tough economy.
From the many, one.
That resounds in America, at least in print, waiting to bond you, the grad, with the billions of inhabitants vying for a piece of the Earth and a space on which to reside well for some limited decades of life before death.
You help to bring that phrase to fruition. It is not easy. You will need at least one good friend with acquaintances to hold you up on this fragile planet. But, one must lead, and get the "ball" rolling as it were. Do it!
11,176 people viewed Ernie Harwell's body and the voice that led people to come together in Comerica Park. His announcing of the Detroit Tiger baseball boys of summer's rite resounds in the clarion call to bring people together beyond partisan politics and voting along party lines alone. You can be the one to do this! Believe in yourself, but others welfare also, and God always. Be passionate, purposeful and network building with a vision for more than just yourself and your bank account.
Others will follow the leader.
With the help of God, be that leader, I beg.
Please.
The world needs you now.
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