For Max and Hazel, and all the grads of 2022
You may not remember the first step you ever took,
but look, here you are, stepping off the dais,
as newly minted today, as you were then.
For years—too many, it seems—you’ve been told:
Line Up,
Move forward,
Look Up,
Look Down,
And STOP!
The world, now, is your oyster, as they say,
but they never tell you what this means:
The world is your classroom perpetual and teacher,
and every day brings a new challenge
that writes a new lesson
for you to be tested on,
culminating in the greatest
of all questions:
“How do I make a difference
while I’ve got the day-to-day grind on my mind?”
This is the question for the ages;
All the great sages and philosophers have pondered the issue,
and here is what they said (abridged):
Line Up: Conform to goodness in everything.
Move Forward: Challenges are not intended to thwart your trajectory.
Look Up: Nothing in the vast universe is beneath your notice.
Look Down on nothing and no one;
atoms—as people—differ in constituency,
but coexist together in the same metaphenomenon;
honor that truth by learning to be together
in cooperation with all that is.
Stop at nothing achieve your goals, even as they shift.
Be yourself, accept yourself, even as you change and grow;
you hardly know it, but you’re already a techie,
inventing and reinventing yourself,
inside and out, in every moment.
When you accept all others as equals,
this is where all dialogue begins,
and today is where the seeds are planted
for the gardens of tomorrow;
All that is left to do, then, is tend them, wisely,
today and tomorrow—always.
© 2022 by Elisabeth T. Eliassen and songsofasouljourney.blogspot.com
