Graduation

Yesterday, Bryan and I, along with Bryan's family, attended his cousin Amanda's graduation at Harbor High School in Newport Beach. Since it's that time of year, I thought I'd share a video of the song that was sung as part of the ceremony. Now, though I am a mean shot with a video camera, this is the first time I've ever shot a video with my little digital still camera, so bear with me. And doesn't Bryan look somber at the end (that's his thinking look).

Also, here's a picture of Bryan and his sister Kinzie.


And here are a couple of pictures of who we believe to be Amanda, although with hundreds of kids all in the same robe, it's hard to know for certain.





After the graduation march they released a flock of white doves. Susan's concern, which I shared, was that it was cruel to release doves to the wild if they've only ever known captivity. Fortunately Kinzie reassured us that the doves are trained to return to their cages after about an hour. Which leaves me with the question: What do they do in that hour? and do they ever pick up other wild doves along the way? Do they just find the nearest telephone line and hang out until someone tells them breaks over? Do they eat, drink, make dove love? I watched them fly away and they were out of my sight within about a minute, so they must have gone somewhere. What would I do with an hour or two of pure freedom before returning to the safety of captivity?

I think the doves are really the best metaphor for graduation, not because doves mean peace and love, but because they are released from the comfort of their known world, to fly to what they believe is freedom, only to quickly realize how much they miss that security. Happy graduation day? Happy welcome to the real world, it's time you start paying your own bills day. So good luck class of '05. I hope you don't miss your old cage too much before you create a new one for yourself.

I wonder if every time they are released, maybe one or two doves go awol. I feel that way about most graduating classes.