Education Matters:

On Thursday, there were a couple of thousand graduates in our local high schools who celebrated a chapter that has closed in their lives and the opening of another. A very small percentage of those former seniors were “my children,” and so I direct the following suggestions to some of my all-time favorite students who are soon to be embarking on their journeys. Some of you, having sat through my class, will note a familiar refrain, or harangue, if you will. The words are heartfelt nevertheless.

?Put physical exercise into your lives. Your love affair with technology should be tempered with a respect for the wonderful piece of work that is your body, which requires, if you want it to work well, that you balance the mental with the physical.

?Make time for silence in your busy lives. Turn off your cells and iPods and computers and listen to an inner voice that speaks more truth than all of the talking heads and bloggers and chatters on the planet.

It is where your conscience resides, and it will speak to you for all of your years. Listen to it.

?Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and less food that is manufactured in plants. Better yet, grow your own foods, be it in a backyard plot or on an apartment balcony. That will provide sustenance for the body as well as the soul.

?Smile more. Better yet, make it a point of making others smile ever day. Better yet, make them laugh. It is indeed the best medicine and the closest distance between people. It is a declaration of our superiority over the woes and calamities that befall us. It is the one thing that separates us from every other creature on Earth.

Life is too short for you to be too serious, and you are not so old to be out of touch with the silly, giggling child that you once were. Hopefully you never will be.

?Life is one big school, so never stop learning. OK, raise your hand if you have heard this before, but consider, if you will, that the words are more than a tired cliche.

Don’t ever think of the word “education” as something that you once received in your lives. It is, for as long as you draw a breath, ongoing. What constitutes an educated person is, has been and always will be a matter of some dispute, but there is no dispute that it is a life-long process.