Alex, Camille and Cameron, it’s such an honor for me, indeed for us all, to stand
with you on this threshold today and I want you to know that I bear witness to this
passage with a great deal of love, admiration and gratitude. It has been a joy to be
your teacher this year, Alex and Cameron, and a wonderful privilege, Camille, to
watch from a distance as you have bravely shared your passions and gifts. You are
each uniquely remarkable.
You have already been your own best graduation speakers—how wonderful it
was to hear from each of you—and i want to thank you for your honesty,
vulnerability and courage.
Only one other person has stood at this threshold before you—you are only the
second graduating class in springhouse’s history-- and in this way you are pioneers,
trailblazers, ground breakers, explorers who have opened the way for others. In a
hundred years, when someone writes the early history of Springhouse Community
School, your names will be a part of this history as three of its first four graduates.
You are originals, among the first. Not many people can say they paved the way for
others in such a significant way. And clearly, to be a pioneer like this requires
courage and sacrifice and a willingness to venture into the unknown. As you and
your families know, it’s risky and scary and expensive. Human pioneers, those that
have ventured into unknown territories so that the rest of us could follow, have
changed the world time and time again. Astronauts willing to go into outer space;
slaves willing to climb aboard the Underground Railroad; a woman who was willing
to run for President of the United States.
To me, though, your pioneering represents something even greater than
venturing out into the unknown, which is heroic enough. When I think of the kind of
pioneers you are, I think of what it means to be an ecological pioneer. What is an
ecological pioneer? It is an organism that successfully establishes itself in a
barren area, thus starting a new cycle of life.
So, it’s not just that you have discovered new territory by coming to Springhouse
Community School that makes you the kind of pioneer I deeply admire. It’s not just
that you have been willing to sit in classrooms that have never been classrooms
before, like here at the Ecovillage, or that you have been willing to venture out to
untraditional classrooms, like caves and cities and vast eco cultures that have so
much to teach us. It’s not just that you have had a willingness to take your bodies to
new places (though, it’s no small thing, I know, that you have taken risks here, too,
with yoga and dance).
What makes you the kind of pioneers I admire and want to be like is that you
have taken your souls to new places and have, in your bravery, been part of creating
a new cycle of life in what I would call a barren area, a new culture of education at a
time when a new culture of education is desperately needed, a culture that
understands that the exploration we need requires both outer and inward
travelling. A culture that understands that education is more than developing ones
intelligence; a culture that supports and nurtures relationship, both with one oneself
and with others and is willing to stretch our capacities for connection; a culture that
is creative, individualized and dynamic; a culture that is rigorous, open and honest;
a culture that requires you to authentically and wholeheartedly identify and fully
inhabit your gifts so they can be shared in service to the world. This is the work of
true pioneers. Those who know that inward exploration, finding new territories and
life within, is as vital to our survival as the outward explorations of discovering life
on Mars.
And the world needs pioneers like this, like you, more than ever. People like you,
Alex, who are passionate and engaged and brave; people like you, Cameron, who
want to bring equality and fairness to the world; and people like you, Camille, who
are willing to be vulnerable and honest and tender in the sharing of their gifts.
What the world needs most from you is your courageous willingness to fully occupy
your inner landscapes so that you can be precisely and exactly who you are.
There is not a single other person who can offer to the world what each of you
can offer. But, in order to make that offering, you have to know what it is you have
to give. And this is not just what you’re good at or what comes easily to you.
Oftentimes, and I know this to be true of my own life, it is the parts of yourself you
have abandoned, the parts you struggle to uncover and embrace, that have the most
to teach you and the world.
So, I’m counting on you to be explorers of yourselves, to excavate within your
own beings, to dare to be exposed and real and true to who you are. Be your own
pioneers. I am also asking you to trust me when I say that doing this kind of work is
the most important single thing you can do to help the world become more vital and
whole.
I am also counting on you to be kind in the world; to care about the well being of
others; to be unselfish and fiercely honest. I am counting on you to stand up for the
things you believe in, even when it’s painful; I am counting on you to vote, to
participate, to give back, to pay it forward. I am counting on you to be hopeful and
purposeful and thoughtful. I am counting on you to be critical thinkers, to care
about the facts. I am counting on you to take care of yourselves, to not go it alone, to
ask for help. I am counting on you to stay connected, to build healthy, loving
relationships. I am counting on you to protect our natural world.
So, now that I’ve overwhelmed you with all I am counting on you to do and
be…….maybe you’d like to stay here for a while and practice some more?
I am setting a high bar for you because I believe in you and I know with all my
heart that our survival depends on your willingness to do these things.
In every thing you do, I hope you will feel the support of those who love you.
Congratulations on your graduation.