Excellent, as I recall my high school graduation, the speech was all about our being the hope of the future. George Holcombe 14900 Yellowleaf Tr. Austin, TX 78728 Mobile 512/252-2756 “...we have the choice: we can gratefully cultivate the relationships that make us part of a vast network, or we can take them for granted and allow them to wither and die.” Brother David Steindl-Rast, Deeper than Words Sent from my iPad On Aug 24, 2013, at 3:04 AM, Gordon Harper <gharper1@mindspring.com> wrote:
Well --
In this case, the poor soul here in Seattle who tried it (no, twas not I) got roundly booed and some people in his sizable audience tried hard to shut him down before he was through it.
I'd heard about David Guterson's experience delivering the commencement address this year at his former Seattle high school. Only recently, however, did a friend send me a copy of it to read myself. (You may recognize Guterson's name as the author of the novel, Snow Falling on Cedars.) I found his talk so deliciously outrageous as a graduation speech that I have to share it.
Those who were most outraged and expressed it so vocally were in the parents and family members section; it seems the graduates were at least polite and attentive during it. Its ending is weak (IMHO), and of course there was no following Christ lecture the next morning. Still, if one ever wanted a current rendering of our Friday night event, this might come close --
Gordon <Guterson Commencement Speech.doc> _______________________________________________ OE mailing list OE@lists.wedgeblade.net http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/oe-wedgeblade.net