Life here on the earth can be filled with stark contrarities. As I reflect on my own circumstances to those of my children, I pause. My oldest daughter Heather, and my son Taylor graduate this coming year, Heather from college and Taylor from high school. As the cool of autumn is lapping at me I hearken back to those days of my own life.
You know we are filled with anticipation in looking forward to high school graduation some time near the beginning of our senior year; I mean the thought of the passage to adulthood, the excitment of making our own money, the responsibilities of decision-making affecting our futures, I mean we had it together, didnt we? You know the passage of a single event like this means very little looking backwards. A day when you dress funny, thirty years and some on this side of that event, I recall very little....it was just another day...was it not?
College graduation for me was very different.....it was a diploma in a mailing tube, a block to be checked, almost perfunctory. After all, upon choosing the "fifteen-year plan" I was already married, had two little children and was steeped with financial responsibilities and pressures. Grad school was no different; I was the consummate adult-learner. Even today, I am keeping my further grad studies on life-support and the all-elusive PhD is but a fleeting dream.
Okay, this is not being whiny; just stating facts. Frankly, the only thing I would have changed about any of these circumstances would have been the extended schooling into middle adulthood, and its robbery of precious family time for the sake of studies, but that was unavoidable for a number of reasons (wont share these).
What is the point of all of this? Fact is, these milestones are a point in time and not really important. There is a much-deeper richness in learning from the sacrifices and the life events that are shaped during those years; far deeper than what was dealt in any classroom. Dont misread me, I am a stalwart supporter of education, I mean next to a parent and even greater than a pastor, a teacher has a much deeper role of shaping the heart of a child and young adults. You know, no matter where we are in life, we can make an investment in others whether we teach professionally or not. The encouragement, a careful occasional prod and a heap of advise as people grow. In daily life, I have seen young people come into the work place with a sense of entitlement, an air of contempt for authority and a lazy streak that demands attention. I believe that there are opportunities all around us and we must act before it is too late to change their direction, before they become adults that suck the life out of their marriages, workplaces and families due to their character issues. Just some thoughts here on significant life events.