Convocation

Today, I decided to attend the convocation opening the Easter term at the college. Each semester, honorary degrees are awarded and a short speech is delivered by a notable honoree. In the spring, students elected to the Order of Gownsmen are also inducted.

Today, four individuals received honors (including Father Fritz Lafontant who, with Paul Farmer, started the medical mission in Haiti made famous in Tracy Kidder's Mountains Beyond Mountains). Historian and writer Godfrey Hodgson delivered a short address that focused, appropriately, on Martin Luther King Jr. and Barack Obama. I'd like to say his talk was inspiring, but it wasn't.

What was impressive was what I always find impressive: the beauty of All Saints' Chapel. Sitting inside, I never fail to feel a sence of calm when I look upwards -- at the valuting and stained glass and organ pipes and rose window. The chapel is especially beautiful on a fall late afternoon when the sun throws flaring bursts of colorful light against stone like silent fireworks. I love sitting alone, then, in near darkness.

I celebrate the astronomical show.