Some Convocation-like Remarks for a Literary Gathering Before the Academic Year Begins

I want to share a few brief remarks, ones that could serve as part of a convocation ceremony. You can have a convocation ceremony at the opening or close of an academic year. If the latter, if the end of the year, then we're going to sum up all that has been accomplished and outline how we want to respond to future challenges. But here we are at the opening of an academic year. Some in the room will graduate soon; some are brand new to the college (welcome!); and many of us, myself included, are wondering exactly what stage of the academic journey we are on. Convocation presents a particular sort of puzzle. How do we account for what we're doing, how do we see it as part of a larger good? How do we understand what we're doing as flexible, as responsive, as real? We are told all the time that "school isn't real life," even as we have witnessed schools feed our neighbors, enable necessary skillsets, and inspire countless others to serve. It feels like something more, in our minds, needs to click. We want to know how to advocate for what we do against a propaganda which all too easily dismisses entire lives as "useless."

Let's start with the idea of convocation. It's a calling together, but you wouldn't be wrong to see "con" as "with" and "vocation" as "calling" in that sense used by those who are religious. Convocation as "with calling." We are called together because we have been called previously, long before there was a launch party or a journal or maybe even a school. We are "with calling" because there is something to be done in this life, that there is serious purpose. And you'll notice there are lot of people who really struggle with that idea. Sometimes they're fearful; they feel they have been denied. What good is purpose if you know you'll fail? Sometimes they're angry. They may not know why they want revenge any more, but they're going for it just to feel something. Sometimes they believe they must put others down. It's the only form of control they have, and with that, of course, withers any sense of serious purpose. I've seen people put others down for wanting to do astrophysics. To have a calling is to see the cruelty of the world for what it is: a nihilism, a will to nothingness, so deep that it is almost useless to call it nihilism. It underlies a number of ideologies which have to be fought and defeated on their own terms.

So for us, this school year, there is a specific undertaking. We have to learn to value the smaller steps which may blossom–or may not blossom–into the larger success. A very small, nearly pathetic example. Some of you know I'm working on a paper on Heidegger and Antigone. And I've put all my notes into one handwritten notebook. There's an explanation for each quote–how am I using this, what are several takeaways I can use–under each. It's not perfect. There are plenty of places someone can say "what is this dude rambling about." I know you can't read it and learn anything easily. But it absolutely is, on its own, a work of scholarship. I'm not saying that to brag. I'm saying that because what the heck is it otherwise. And it is that kind of quiet reframing of our own efforts I hope to see more of, from all of us, this year.

You don't win because everyone tells you that you won. You need to identify the calling and work from there. It is a way to understand your usefulness to the world and yourself.