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
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