"A good start is half the work"

I was recently on the road at 0-dark-hundred to travel to South Hadley, Massachusetts to attend the 172nd commencement at Mount Holyoke College. I was not disappointed by the experience.

I wonder if commencement speeches are absorbed more hungrily by the attendees. All the good intentions of the speakers notwithstanding, I think the soon-to-be graduates may not necessarily be full of singular attention. What with texting, excitement over a forthcoming, post-ceremony celebration and the desire for diploma in hand, I think their minds might wander; whereas, world-weary parents and further-down-the-road adults could use a boost of inspiration and enthusiasm. Admittedly, I might be over-generalizing, or, at the very least, adding my newly discovered love of a good graduation speech to the mix.

I don´t remember what retired Chief Justice Earl Warren said at my college graduation thirty-six years ago. I am sure it was considered quite a coup to have his honorable presence at the ceremony, but I know his words didn´t sing to me.

I love words; and I particularly love when words resonate and connect with my head, my heart and, particularly, my funny bone.

I love how words get strung together like pearls on a necklace and become a thing of beauty. I like the power of words; how they grab my attention and make me think, reconsider, and expand my knowledge base. I delight in learning new stuff; unfortunately, I don´t always remember this new stuff given the short shelf life for new data in my over-50 brain.

What I usually remember are the funny parts; make me laugh and I will follow you like a puppy dog. And if you manage to touch my soul and shift me into the broader, more expansive, we-are-all-connected-and-everything-is-possible channel, I am hooked, big time.

So it happened at Mount Holyoke. There was a trifecta of honorary degrees conferred, and each of these women spoke. There was a Princess Educator, a world renowned scientist, and the featured commencement speaker, the President of Ireland. And their words did sing to me.

Princess Lolowah al-Faisal al Saud, the daughter of Saudi Arabia´s Queen Effat and the late King Faisal, is a soft-spoken firebrand and an amazing visionary and activist who believes in educating women and creating social and family welfare.

In the 1990´s, the Princess worked with her mother, the Queen, in supervising the first private high school for girls in Saudi Arabia. In 1999, she founded Effat College, now Effat University, the first all-women´s college in Saudi Arabia. The Princess consulted with Mount Holyoke´s administration and faculty in the development of Effat College, and today, the two schools participate in Women´s Education Worldwide, a consortium of women´s colleges. This gracious, very cultured woman holds an unwavering vision for the education of women in the Middle East and what that means to the world; she is an elegant, unstoppable force.

And speaking of forces, Clare Waterman, a 1989 graduate of Mount Holyoke College, is high-energy dynamo, a 2007 Sackler International Prize in Biophysics award winner, and a passionate scientist who is currently Chief of the Laboratory of Cell and Tissue Morphodynamics at NIH´s National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Whew … and those are just the headlines. Clare has the ability to have you sitting on the edge of your seat to hear what she has to say next – and the woman is talking science.

Clare ran through a brief time line of science from her own days at Mount Holyoke where, she allowed, the building blocks of research, i.e., proteins in RNA and DNA (if I understood all of this correctly) were not known then to today where science has managed through stem cell research to repair the spinal cord of a mouse. What possibilities are around the corner? Science is breathtaking and running at a breakneck speed.

And grab this: Mount Holyoke College has the largest percentage, bar none, of post graduates involved in science. Who knew?

Maybe because I am a woman who is the product of many years of all-women schools that I can very much relate to the sisterhood of women being taught, shown, and modeled that they have a voice; they can use their voice, and they can make a difference with that voice. Most of us would agree that education is important. Therefore, it follows that educating women is equally important.

Mary McAleese, the eight President of Ireland and first from Northern Ireland, was the commencement speaker for this graduation, and she spoke soulfully to this point. She allowed that there are 22 million women on this planet who are illiterate. McAleese also noted that one-third of African women with educations emigrate. Further, when family economics are threatened, it is the girls who are pulled out of school, and their education is truncated.

And as we all know from the global news, there are females who face death if caught being educated. And, this, my friends, is the 21st century.

Mary McAleese shared her own story:

The local priest was visiting her family, and her family has always been very respectful to the men of the collar, and accorded him all due deference.

The priest asked a younger Mary, "What do you want to do when you grow up?"

Mary responded, "I want to be a lawyer."

The priest replied, "You can´t be a lawyer; you´re a woman." (Note: McAleese was born in 1951.)

Mary´s mother, a woman, McAleese related, who was deferential in most things, abruptly exclaimed, "Don´t listen to him." And Mary didn´t; she went off to law school.

While in law school, McAleese was instructed to read a book by a great jurist. She devoured the text and came to the last chapter entitled "Just Women." She went to the table of contents at the beginning of the book and noted there was no chapter called "Just Men." The "Just Women" chapter posited that women entered law school to find a husband and, further, women did not have strong enough voices to be heard across a courtroom. McAleese deadpanned, clearly, the author had never heard an Irish mother call her children in for tea.

Mary McAleese presents as an intelligent, no-nonsense Irish woman who can hold her own anywhere, any time. She is very present; you have the sense you have her complete attention. She is also very attractive and energetic; there is no large ego looming here. You almost overlook her security detail as a head of state. She seems so very approachable that you would want her to join you for dinner; undoubtedly, the conversation would be rollicking with substance, soul, and wit.

Now, here are four more small pearls from McAleese´s commencement address: Science has indicated that children born today will have a life span of 100 years. She quoted Irish poet, Sean Heaney, who says that we need to change hearts to change minds. She translated a Gaelic saying that reads: "Two shorten the journey." Further, McAleese asked the graduates to find "a new imagination for peace."

There I was sitting in too much sun in an open-air amphitheater able to hear these three women, who are changing the world and making a significant global impact. I was heartened by positive steps taken and evolution unfolding. And I was reminded very directly there has been a longstanding history of keeping females away from education. Half the population was barred from knowledge, skill sets, and opening the mind to new images and thoughts. It seems so barbaric and fear-driven from my 2009 perspective.

McAleese quoted a Gaelic saying that translates to "A good start is half the work." The Mount Holyoke women (and the two transgendered women who became men during their collegiate years) certainly received that good start.

I didn´t realize until I heard the speakers various words how parched and dry my psyche was for hope and promise, possibility and potential.

Maybe it should be made de rigueur for middle-aged folks to listen to intelligent, soul-rich words designed to remind them of the big picture and progress being made. Maybe we all need a dose of everyone-counts and we-can-make-a-difference in a world that has become fractured with war, greed, shallow minutiae, vested interests, and the like. I know I was revivified and renewed. And I felt pride for women making a difference in a world that has often thrown up barriers and blocks to females with far-reaching dreams.

Having discovered this new passion for commencement speeches at this mid-life juncture, be assured, I welcome all invitations to be reminded of why I am here, walking the earth plane, with you, my fellow sojourners. There is nothing like a good commencement speech to get my juices flowing and to remind me that all things are possible.

As for my graduate, she is an adult student who entered college to change her life and to change the world. And that she is doing just that with her good start. Who knows, one day I may be sitting in an amphitheater listening to how her visions helped heal a broken world.

Copyright 2009 by Adele Ryan McDowell