You know what’s crazy? I’ll tell you what’s crazy™
profound devastation. Unadulterated joy. The two concepts are swirling across my brain like two tidal systems coming and going at the same time.
My son graduated from 8th grade Tuesday. I watch him interact with his friends. He seems well liked and appreciated by his peers. When they call his name, there are plenty of cheers. It’s refreshing.
The room is filled with smiles. There is so much pride, so much love. It is wonderful.
I watch as hundreds of children graduate to high school. What a moment.
From somewhere above me a man shouts; “I’m her grandpa.” His voice is full of pride.
The room erupts in laughter and clapping.
During the ceremony, a young woman with a guitar steps to the microphone and sings a lovely song while playing flawlessly. She is neither intimidated nor nervous by this venue. I was nervous walking across the stage to get my diploma. This gal is singing a song. Wow.
After all, it is Music City.
Young people who should be afraid of their own shadows step to the lectern and begin speaking, eloquently, forcefully. I listen to themes that include rights of passage and passing of the torch.
One young man says it comes down to two words: Tenacity and Tolerance. Be tenacious in everything you do while making the world a better place, he says. And be tolerant of those around you regardless of what they believe, he added.
It was a powerfully simple message. If every person on this planet was tenacious and tolerant, the world would be a better place. A pretty amazing insight for a kid with only 14 trips around the sun.
While the room was filled with the pledge of allegiance and shouts of enthusiasm, in the back of my mind, I couldn’t help but think of the poor victims of Oklahoma who are wiping the dirt off their faces today. These Okies went through a vortex of spinning hell on Monday. The National Weather Service has now quantified the tornadoes that ripped apart buildings and lives as an EF 5. That’s a 200 plus mile an hour wind that is ferocious and unforgiving. You’d have to go to Saturn to find winds more forceful in this solar system.
Children a little younger than the ones in this gymnasium huddled together in the center of their Oklahoma school. They were told by frightened teachers that this was not a drill as the devil cloud blew in their roof. One teacher told her students to hold their back packs over their heads.
When they should have been dreaming of a summer vacation, they were suddenly trying to deflect bricks and sticks with back packs made of cloth. It doesn’t seem fair does it?
I looked around at young men and women in this setting and think about the wonderful future they all have. Dates and cars and proms and sports.
As I sit in this auditorium, I take stock of what is and what could be.
These graduating families are wondering where to go and how to celebrate graduation success.
A thousand miles away, families just like these are looking for their pets, picking through mud, planning funerals.
Take stock in what you have today. The people in Oklahoma only had a few blasts of a tornado siren to get to safety. For some, there was nowhere to run.
For the graduates of the Grassland Middle School I salute you.
Be tenacious. Be tolerant.
Life’s Crazy™