End of the year

Tonight was graduation for Tri-C students. They heard from a number of mercifully brief speakers, including Anne Mulcahy, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Xerox Corporation, shown at the podium in this picture.

What they didn't hear were repeated invocations of "Jesus, my Lord and Savior," which unfortunately had been a feature of several previous commencements.

The opening and closing prayers, offered by a Baptist minister and a Catholic priest, respectively, were admirably ecumenical. Here's a bit of the opening benediction:

Because Tri-C is both a public institution and a very diverse one as well, Christian prayers have always seemed to me both unwise and probably illegal.

We even escaped the yearly talk by the head of the alumni association, whose first words in several past years were praising Jesus. She wasn't on the agenda...praise the Lord for that!

And yet in the context of this occasion when everone is trying to give the graduates words to live by, the prayer of Mother Teresa was quite moving . This advice is better than most:

People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies. Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you. Be honest and sincere anyway.

What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight. Create anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous. Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, will often be forgotten. Do good anyway.

Give the best you have, and it will never be enough. Give your best anyway.

In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.

A little research revealed that Mother Teresa adapted these words from The Paradoxical Commandments by Dr. Kent Keith. The original version makes no reference to God at all.

TOP