0
0
Standing out on Brad’s dock with the Chesapeake white caps popping up here and there, and with his college friends packed on the dock with him, Sammy Sportface delivers the commencement address to this huge crowd who graduated from college some 40 years ago. Here are a few excerpts:
“Forty years ago we were confused and naïve young college graduates unsure how we were going to survive in this dark and dirty world. Now, forty years later we’re even more confused and naïve and have less of a clue about the meaning of life than we did back then.
For the past 40 years, we’ve been waking up in the mornings, going to work, getting criticized by our bosses, disappointing customers, turning off clients, and bitching about encounters with arrogant and selfish people.
We ourselves have had to become selfish ourselves in order to survive in this rough and unforgiving world. So we have. We’ve taken care of ourselves, shut down outsiders, and hunkered down to endure the storms that life has hit us with.
But now we arrive here at the brink of eternal life, 60-something-year-olds, for one last hurrah at this idyllic scene, the home of Arnold BradFagg.
This is the day to forget all that garbage that has happened to us in our lives: the bills, the firings, the foreclosures, the bankruptcies, the interpersonal conflicts. Today we set all that aside and focus on the glistening water emanating from the pool and bay, the aroma of crab meat, and the scent of lifelong friendships, and we wonder where these past 40 years have gone.
It feels like 40 days or even 40 minutes, and yet it’s been 40 years. Life moves like light through a fiber optic strand of glass.
Since we graduated the world has reinvented itself. The Internet arrived and changed how we communicate. Smartphones enabled us to text each other wherever we were in the world. And now ChatGPT threatens to make our skills obsolete. We could be headed for no longer being needed by society.
What is our calling with this world the way it is? What must we do now to make our lives meaningful?
The answer is who knows? No one knows what’s coming next, how long we will live, what happens after we die.
Nothing is certain.
So now, on this glorious day on the Chesapeake, one of the world’s most beautiful bodies of water, we contemplate. We think about the power of just being near water, looking at it, staring at it, wondering about it.
There is a calmness to being around water. It stills our minds, cleanses our hearts of pain and heartache, and makes us feel comfortable and somehow connected to each other and to the waves and currents.
Here we are, college classmates, 40 years after we first met, still getting together, still laughing, still drinking, still enjoying each other – bonded by water.
Author Profile
-
Sammy Sportface, a sports blogger, galvanizes, inspires, and amuses The Baby Boomer Brotherhood. And you can learn about his vision and join this group's Facebook page here:
Sammy Sportface Has a Vision -- Check It Out
Sammy Sportface -- The Baby Boomer Brotherhood Blog -- Facebook Page
Latest entries
BonusApril 20, 2024A Horrible Life Becomes Great
BonusApril 15, 2024Dancing in the Meadowlands – Then Darting Away
BonusApril 13, 2024Back in Bernardsville: You Can Go Home Again
BonusApril 12, 2024Jersey – His Hometown From A Lifetime Ago