 Thank you very much, President Sullivan, Provost Low, Chairperson Chaffee, distinguished honorees, faculty, staff, graduates of the class of 2013. Because of you, we are assembled here today. Because you survived freshman tap classes. Because you were holed up in cubicles and barely howl until your eyes shut you down. Because you drank so much of Henderson's free coffee, they started charging during final week. Because you perfected your personal posture for the naked bike ride. And you still completed what you came here to do. All of us are assembled here in recognition and support to express respect and to celebrate with a communal demonstration of undying interest in you and a showering of love upon you. And because there is such excitement and emotion coming at you from every direction, you could easily pass on from this moment without fully appreciating and feeling the weight of it. Sit in the majesty of this moment. Standing right here alongside you is the entire sweep of your and our collective knowledge. We have come from all over this planet to share this experience today with you. We're parents and we're step-parents. Because of you, we learned how to animate bedtime stories. We learned an emotion much deeper than we thought possible. You entertained us with your humor and your exploits. You took us on a journey of you. And through you, we learned to better understand ourselves. You took us to school. You taught us empathy, patience, and forbearance. And you still teach us to this very moment the meaning of love. We are teachers. Because of you, we too survived those freshman tap classes. We stayed up preparing lesson plans, reading papers, and giving that extra empty to maintain UVM's tradition of mental style education. You tested our nerves. You did do that. But your debating and questioning kept our minds sharp and nimble. We followed your struggles and tribulations, pulled for you in your hours of deepest uncertainty. And now, we celebrate and salute your successful negotiation of this most difficult journey. We are friends. Because of you, we parted harder than we knew was possible. We jumped off of the cliffs at Red Rock, Hunger Club Metronome, and at the Monkey House. We sat in Brennan's eating free popcorn. We studied with an intensity that was only exceeded by the kinship we feel with you and with one another. We have established bonds that will never be broken, relationships cemented by the pressure of trials, tribulations, and various and sundry terrors that only visit college students. We are brothers and sisters. Because of you, we learned to share meals, space, the TV, and the attention of our parents. You supported us. You set an example. And you also teased us and aggravated us, and you broke our toys, and you did dumb things. And you like to do those dumb things to us. You enjoyed that, torturing us. You were paying in the booty. But here we are. If you don't mess with us at the obligatory meal, I guess you're OK. We are grandparents. Because of you, we see our living legacy. You have animated our homes. In some instances, our home is also your home. We have shown you things that we were too busy to do with your parents. We were able to give freely without the responsibility of discipline. And we were also happily able to send you home when it got to be too much. Today, the sweeping traditions of family and university sit together in one long, present moment. All the living generations intertwine the known and the yet to be known, locked in an unending dance of past and future. There's a favorite tradition we have in New Orleans. It's called a jazz parade. The dancers that follow the band are called the second line. The band is the first line. Our most celebrated song when the Saints go marching in has one line of lyric. It says, oh, Lord, I want to be in that number when the Saints go marching in. Well, we are in that number today. We are your second line. We are your support system. Our presence today is our pride. And though there's much of life that you've got to face alone, you cannot make it out here by yourself. Your diploma is a hard-earned symbol of achievement. But the broadest education has already come from your life itself. And that life is all around you here today. Embrace it and cherish it right here in this moment. The widow of a successful New Orleans doctor once told me that she and her husband were at a luncheon banquet full of prominent doctors. During the meal, he started to have trouble swallowing whatever he'd eaten. Being embarrassed, he went to the bathroom. He blacked out and died alone in the bathroom with an entire support system just a few feet away. Don't you leave your support system when you are in distress. Embrace us. We are here when you need us. And if needs be, we will travel to where you need us to be. Just as we have come today from everywhere, just as we have come today from everywhere, we've come because of you. We couldn't wait to get here. It took 20-something years for us to get here. And as it is with all journeys, what was is not what will be. We all face some degree of difficulty to get here today. Adjustments had to be made. Routines upset. And there will be more as this day wears on with the complexity of issues that are always on the menu when families assemble with all of the joys and dysfunctions appertaining their unto. To journey is to embrace change. And though we sit in the shadow of the halls of erudition and scholarship, though you walk today on an established path in the echoing footsteps of ceremony, we know you are also building new paths that need to be built. Paths that we are not capable of building. Things we cannot see. And these new roads and bridges can only be constructed by you and you alone. Today affords you the perfect opportunity to re-meet family, friends, and mentors. It's the perfect time for you to re-meet everyone that you think you know, not as my X or my Y or my Z, but as whoever that person actually is. It's harder to build than to destroy. To build is to engage into change. In jazz, we call progressing harmonies changes, chord changes. Changes are like obstacles on a speed course. They demand your attention and require you to be present. They are coming, they are here, and then they're gone. And if you miss them, they're long gone. That's how life comes. Each moment is a procession from the future into the past. And that sweet spot is always the present. Live in that sweet spot. Be present. Be present here today, whether you're hungover, whether you're bored, whether you're ready to go. Be present. Force yourself to be present. The great night, Sir Lancelot of the Round Table, came upon an unpassable bridge that was the blade of a sword. It was stretched over a bottomless moat of raging water. He was challenged to rescue Queen Guinevere on the other side. And after surveying the situation and being told no knight had ever successfully kept his balance in crossing, he really wanted to just leave and forget about the queen. But he said, well, I'm here. So he took his arm off and he crossed that blade on blooded hand and knee. On returning with the queen, he was asked, why did you take your arm off? He replied, I didn't want to worry about getting cut. He understood to cross this bridge is about getting cut. We all have such bridges to cross. And those two are with us right here today because all of the dynamics that shape our lives are right here with us. And those dynamics are unruly and hard fought. Improvisation is what challenges jazz. The jazz man to give order to an unknowable moment of the present. The size and grandeur of this moment challenges you to be present and to create the relationships you want to experience. This day is the final test of your college career. And what you do is what you will do. I ask you to approach this day with grace, with grit, with graciousness and with gratitude. This is not preparation for life. This is life. Your diploma is a symbol. It's a key. You ever look all over your house for your keys and they're in your hand? You're not ever gonna find them. When it comes to your support system, don't be oblivious of the obvious. Great Muller Nashrudin is a 13th century Sufi mystic. He would pass the same border crossing every day, 10, 15 years on a donkey. 10, 15 times the border guards would stop and they would search everywhere. They knew he was smuggling something on this turban, all areas of the donkey. Never found anything. Some few years after they had all retired Nashrudin himself was no longer active. They all met together in a tea house and the guard said, come on, Muller, you beat us, okay? We all retired. Please tell us. You're not gonna go to jail. What were you smuggling all of those years? And Nashrudin replied, donkeys. To my son, Simeon, who graduates today. And to all other graduates, I want to speak on behalf of Candace and Greg and all the parents and step-parents who don't have the opportunity to personally comment publicly. That itself is a gift. From every change diaper, to every sickness, to every shoulder ride, every bed time store, every fight over curfew, over homework, over habits, all of the triumphs and the failures rolled up into one. All of us, we thank you. All of you give meaning, you give meaning and depth to our lives and so many good times. We are so proud of you all and we fear for you. We fear because part of us is not ready to accept that you are grown and what you are. Still to us, you will always be our baby. You will always be our child. My dad is sitting right there, he's still my dad. We're parents and we're step-parents. But we remain daughters and sons and grandsons and granddaughters and so on. As deep as jeans can remember and as far as insight can stretch into the future. We are teachers but we are also sons and daughters and grandparents but we remain students even as we teach. We are brothers and sisters and we'll remain little or big brothers and sisters until we part from this earth. We are friends and many of us will remain so in memory or indeed until this natural life ends for each and every one of us. And in this cycle, we define each other's lives across times and for all times, even as we define it in this very moment. We're proud of you and we're also proud of ourselves in you. In this cycle of experiences, we find the real meaning of life. We are and to be is to be present. That's why we're all gathered here in recognition and support to express respect and to celebrate with a communal demonstration of undying interest in you and a showering of love upon you. Because there's such excitement and emotion coming at you from every direction, you could easily pass on from this moment without feeling the full weight of it all. We have come from all over the planet because of you. Congratulations.