Flying High on Graduation Day!

“The tassel's worth the hassle!” 
~ Author Unknown

Mckenzie—May 28, 2010

When Peter Pan taught Wendy, John, and Michael how to fly he sang, “I'm flying . . . Look at me—way up high, Suddenly—here am I . . . I'm flying!” On the night I watched my youngest daughter, Mckenzie’s final school play, Peter Pan, marking the closing months of her high school technical theater days, I was flying high inside with emotion. I couldn’t really explain what was happening to me at that moment in time . . . but as Peter Pan rose into the air singing those immortal words, my eyes filled with tears and I began to cry. Here was my baby—the last of my children—ready to spread her wings of independence and fly away to college. Here she was ending her high school experience by designing and lighting the memorable show of the boy who never wanted to grow-up!

Today is Graduation Day! And while I know there will be other graduations in the future for extended family members and grandchildren, I know there will never be another high school experience for one of our children. This is it—the end of an era, leaving us both joyful and melancholy at the same time. Erma Bombeck, humorous newspaper columnist from the mid 1960s to the late 1990s, perhaps expressed it best when she said, “Graduation day is tough for adults. They go to the ceremony as parents. They come home as contemporaries. After [eighteen] years of child-raising, they are unemployed!”

So in celebration of your day Mckenzie, I present the following bit of humor, a poem written and performed by Dr. Seuss at Lake Forest College’s 1977 graduation exercises, where he received an Honorary Degree. It is Dr. Seuss’ only known commencement address.

Background Story: Eugene Hotchkiss III, president of Lake Forest College from 1970 to 1993, told the background story about this memorable graduation:

“On Commencement morning, as the honored guests robed in their academic regalia, I asked Mr. Geisel if he would be willing to say but a few words, acknowledging his degree. His silence was penetrating. Finally the time came to read his citation. As Faculty Marshals stepped forth to place the hood over his head, I spoke these penultimate words, for which I must credit my wife, Sue: “We proclaim you not the ‘Cat in the Hat’ but the ‘Seuss in the Noose’.” And then I awarded him the College’s degree of Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa."

"At that moment, fearing his response, I shook his hand in a whisper and asked him if he would be willing to say a few words. He reached under his academic gown, announcing loudly for all to hear that it was ‘a bathrobe,’ pulled out a piece of paper from his shirt pocket and turned to the microphone. And the rest, as they say, is history!”



On Dr. Seuss’s piece of paper were the following words:

My Uncle Terwilliger on the Art of Eating Popovers

By Theodor Geisel, a.k.a. Dr. Seuss

My uncle ordered popovers

From the restaurant's bill of fare.

And, when they were served,

He regarded them with a penetrating stare . . .

Then he spoke great Words of Wisdom

As he sat there on that chair:

“To eat these things,” said my uncle,

“You must exercise great care.”

“You may swallow down what's solid . . .

BUT . . .

You must spit out the air!”

And as you partake of the world's bill of fare,

That's darned good advice to follow.

Do a lot of spitting out the hot air

And be careful what you swallow!

~ Dr. Seuss


[An original poem composed for the 99th Commencement of 
Lake Forest College by Theodor Seuss Geisel; June 4, 1977
]

“All our dreams can come true . . . if we have the courage 
to pursue them!” ~ Walt Disney