Uncontested

Watched the graduation ceremony for the University of North Alabama yesterday. Hundreds of graduates will seek changes in their lives due to owning confirmation of approximately 200 hours of in-class instruction and testing combined with out-of-class studying, labwork and service.

Many families proudly screamed and hollered when their friend/blood relative walked across the stage after receiving a diploma folder.

The guest speaker pulled out worn-out jokes aimed toward a conservative audience and made me wonder if perhaps he was used to addressing men dressed in striped shirts and dark suit coats ("time for Paris Hilton's 15 minute of fame to be up" - umm...do we even remember who she is, anymore?). His topic, centered on his area of expertise (and yes, he's truly an ex-pert) - economics - didn't exactly keep people sitting on the edge of their seats but did impress some of the adults/parents I spoke with afterward.

Wish I had something wise to say or wisecrack to cut but I don't. Yesterday, I meditated my way through the ceremony.

Occasionally I broke the shell around my mental emptiness (non-directed thinking) to talk with a man beside me who had flown up from Tampa, Florida (he's from Plant City) to see his daughter, Katie, receive her bachelor's degree in education. I believe he said she was also the drum major and would graduate summa cum laude? He was duly impressed that my niece received the highest scolastic honors that the university bestows, the Keller award for perfect scores.

My wife's niece and nephew both ended up with a perfect 4.0 in both primary/secondary education and baccalaureate education.

My mother in-law is happy that both her grandchildren excelled academically but is more concerned that her grandchildren have spent too much time focusing on academics and not enough on understanding common sense, simple things like observing the goals of life such as getting married and raising well-rounded children, and missing out on the larger social scene that only colleges and universities provide. Oh well, those opportunities have passed by. As she said, neither one of us were the primary caretakers of the two kids so we have only ancillary functions and little input into their daily lives.

Time to finish preparing for taking my mother in-law to a local country Presbyterian church in the woods in order to celebrate Mother's Day with her. While I type, my wife is turning the dozen white roses I bought at Wal-Mart earlier this morning into a corsage, using the training she received as a teenager in her aunt's floral shop.