--John Wooden

I'm not done with the whole religion thing, but, having actually done some stuff lately, I'm taking a quick break to check in on the chronicle of my life. I'll get back to it soon, trust me.

Commencement at my college was today. So, despite having first gone to sleep at about 5:30 AM, I woke up at around 7:30, and proceeded to gradually attain some measure of consciousness, arriving on campus just a bit late, at 9:45. I missed the processional, and a speech or two, but I was there for most of it, at least.

The main ceremony was outside on the quad, which was occupied by a sea of folding chairs, all of which were taken by the time I arrived. I found a nice shady spot in the back, with a speaker blaring the speeches and such on either side of me. So I was able to hear everything that was going on, even if I could only barely see the stage.

As an aside, one of the speakers was a half-second behind the other, which made for an interesting, if somewhat distracting, echo effect. Either one of them was a bit slow, or the other was a bit fast, and was, in fact, proclaiming the words a split second before those on the stage actually said them. Probably the former, but wouldn't it be wild if the latter were the case?

This is why I'm not majoring in physics. :-)

Blue and silver do strike me as having been a good choice. But then, I'm just biased towards primary colors.

I also discovered that the clock on campus can do more than simply toll the hours and play the chimes used by Big Ben. It can, and does, go wild at the moment of graduation, continuing to ring out joyfully for some time afterwards. I thought that was pretty cool.

As it happened, the guy sitting next to me didn't care for ceremony at all, and was just waiting for the thing to be over. He did at least manage to keep this to himself, for the most part, and I should say that he was otherwise a nice enough fellow. But me, I like pomp and circumstance, when appropriate. I loved seeing most of the professors in their formal robes (although I admittedly felt bad for their having had to have worn them outside in the hot sun during the main ceremony). I liked the speeches. I liked the roll call of the graduates in the department. In short, in my opinion, there is a time for formality and ceremony, and this was certainly such a time.

I've gotten into arguments over this sort of thing before, usually with regard to weddings. The more formal and ceremonial, the better, to my way of thinking. When my brother got married, and he, my father, and the bride's side of the family all agreed that it would be super to scale back on the honors given out and streamline the ceremony to its essentials, I was the only one who was vocally appalled. Not that it was any of my business, which is why I shut my mouth pretty quickly.

(And, in fairness, it did turn out to be a nice wedding.)

But I'm rambling, I think.

And then I dragged myself home, fairly exhausted, because, remember, I'd only gotten two hours of sleep the night before. And as I walked in the door, I heard someone talking into my answering machine. And I'll continue this in the next entry, 'cause I am trying to catch up.