Commentary: No pity for Class of 2005 … just real love
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The Rev. Thomas V. Wolfe |
May 24, 2005 A UMNS Commentary By the Rev. Thomas V. Wolfe* As
I contemplated our commencement ceremony this year, I realized that I
have been writing my invocation for the past four years. When
I stepped up to the podium May 15 to offer the opening prayer, I
thought of how life changed for this generation of students—the last to
matriculate before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. In those few, short,
terrible minutes, only days into their undergraduate careers, four
hijacked aircraft collided with the students' assumptions about the
global rules of engagement. On
that day, I had to function as a dean of a university chapel and as a
dad. My daughter was one of those first-year students. Our campus at
Syracuse University was like all of the others. We were hanging around
television monitors for updates and horrified by the images. We were all
afraid and stunned. The campus went into response mode. Meetings were
called, and emergency plans were made. In
the midst of the business, I found myself saying to each one I
encountered, "Don't forget to check in with your family." I stole a
moment for myself and called my daughter's room. She answered. "Are you watching television?" I asked. "I
am," she replied. There was silence for a moment … (a crack in her
usually confident and strident voice) …"It's scary," she said.
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Courtesy of Syracuse University Students
at Syracuse (N.Y.) University participate in a blood drive in response
to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.
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Students
at Syracuse (N.Y.) University participate in a blood drive in response
to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.
Freshmen who were just beginning their college educations at that time
graduated in May as the Class of 2005. They said Sept. 11 was a defining
moment that changed them. A UMNS photo courtesy of Syracuse University.
Photo #05-390. Accompanies UMNS story #314, 5/24/05 |
The confident
poise of her generation skipped a beat that day. This technologically
savvy group—wonderfully certain in all things—found itself pausing,
observing, feeling and reassessing. The students also lived up to their
reputation as a generation who puts their most deeply held convictions
into action. "What can we do?" became their mantra. They didn't wait for us to answer. They
started doing on their own. Expressions were written on sheets that
covered the entire quad. Lines formed at blood donation centers. Candles
were lit, and the collective became a blaze of light, remembrance and
possibility. Their vigil absorbed the impact with a silence that was
beautiful. If the meaning of it had had a sound, it would have been
deafening. I
remember thinking about how I was witnessing a kind of awakening and
embracing of a new world landscape. Diversity in all of its religious
and cultural aspects had urgent relevance.
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A UMNS photo courtesy of Syracuse University The
Rev. Thomas Wolfe, chaplain at Syracuse (N.Y.) University, addresses
students following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
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The
Rev. Thomas V. Wolfe participates in a briefing for the Syracuse (N.Y.)
University community in Hendricks Chapel following the terrorist
attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. A UMNS photo courtesy of Syracuse University.
Photo #05-391. Accompanies UMNS #315, 5/24/05 |
We educate in
order to sharpen our students' intellects. We struggle not to protect
our students from the "feeling, touching, tasting, smelling and hearing"
that are learning. We hope that the motivation to learn somehow
involves the activated senses. But that day, our senses were
overwhelmed, and if we stopped to register a feeling, it most likely was
fear. Fear sharpens our awareness, but it never substitutes
successfully as a motivation for learning. This is why my hat is off to
this class of graduates. My fear was that they would become numb,
hardened and cynical. But they engaged a world that changed without
their permission. My
daughter and her cohorts graduated May 15. My invocation at
commencement was both a lament and an offering of thanksgiving. A lament
is an utterly honest declaration of what is. That's the work we have
yet to do. Thanksgiving is for these wonderful graduates that imprinted
themselves on my heart with their compassion and undaunted spirits. It
is true that the world has changed. It is also true that the class of
2005 has changed. Part of it is real change born out of necessity. But
some of that which appears as change is really a set of collective gifts
and insights that the students already possessed but were called forth
on that day, and which have grown with them while they have been here. Through
all this time, this dean has never forgotten that he is also a dad. I
have never been able to look at this class without feeling my "dadness."
I always enjoy commencement. But forgive me for being a little more
invested than usual this year. My daughter is among these graduates, and
we all have had a lot to get used to since they arrived. No pity for this class. Just real love. *Wolfe is dean of Hendricks Chapel at United Methodist-related Syracuse (N.Y.) University.
News media contact: Linda Green, (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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