2009-06-05

To Rebecka as you celebrate your graduation,

The word graduation in itself would seem to imply ‘moving on’ to a new grade or level in life – and I think the word is fitting. School years are an obvious period of preparation for something – The paradox of this preparation is that no one really knows what they are to be preparing for.  If my 62 years has taught me anything, it is that the really important (and really good things) things in life are beyond our planning and quite unpredictable at best.  No one really knows for sure what is around the next bend in the road --- This is what makes ‘tomorrow’ such a wonderful challenge.

Rebecka, there are three things that I would like to say to you in the context of your graduation

1: Your mother has enriched my life with her wonderful capacity to stop and celebrate the good things that life gives us along the way  --- Like today, when she has gone to considerable effort to gather our friends and acquaintances together, worked hard to make it nice - all with the hope and the purpose just to focus on the beautiful achievements of a wonderful daughter.
My hope is that as you go out into the fullness of life on your own, you will also take with you this heritage of actively finding ways and opportunities to turn the daily focus from simply ‘keeping the lid on the everyday pot’, to stopping  a bit, to ‘smile awhile’ and to take the time to “smell the roses” – To feel and express the beauty in  the life you live, with those around you – and then to save it, and keep  it safe within you as a memory.

2: During your years in school the education system clearly defines and separates teachers from pupils  -- In the school environment they have two different roles to fill with quite differently defined responsibilities – In the continuation of your life, you will find that these roles are much more diffuse.   Keep in mind that there are wonderful things to be learned from ‘the unlikely’ - and that sometimes it pays to be wary of the ‘wisdom’ of countless self-defined experts.  Just a tip to keep in mind!! 

3: The caption we wrote on your sign was ‘Another step’. The picture on this sign was of your first step – when you learned to walk.  I think you will find (as I have found) that life sometimes seems to divide itself into steps or chapters. Leaving something behind, and beginning something new.  Embrace this phenomenon of life when it becomes the option of the day. In my life I have had many wonderful chapters – beginning the first one, as you have, with parents and a home --- and I have found that each chapter (some long and some short) has proven to be more wonderful than the one before. Finish each chapter with the period it deserves, and then begin each new with big bold letters and the expectations of all its new dreams and purposes.

 

Wishing you the best with all our love,

Your dad