Graduation Address - 2007 by Fr. Michael Liebl O.S.B.

Earlier this year, Dylan Parlor was taped to a chair by his classmates. Ben Christiansen hid under a blanket in car on a sweltering day to scare a teacher. When Nick Michalak refused to come out of his room for evening prayers, the entire class piled into his room to pray. Last week, the stairwells were covered with Dixie cups full of water. The pictures of graduating classes on the wall were scrambled, and furniture in the conference room was overturned. It seems our seniors had been up early in the morning hard at work. Occasionally in the past four years I and some of our staff here at Mount Michael have surveyed this group of young men and silently wondered, is there any chance of finding intelligent life? When you are dealing with adolescents, answers are not always clear.

In 1985, the comedienne and actor Lily Tomlin opened a one-woman show on Broadway in New York written by Jane Wagner. Entitled “The Search for Intelligent Life in the Universe,” the show’s narrator is Trudy, a bag-lady wheeling her world’s possessions about in a shopping cart. Trudy claims that she used to be a designer and creative consultant. Unfortunately Trudy was unable to cope with the pressures of the real world. Trudy tells her audience, “Reality is the leading cause of stress among those in touch with it.” "It's my belief,” Trudy says, “we all secretly ask ourselves at one time or another, ‘Am I crazy?’ In my case, the answer came back a resounding, ‘Yes’.” Nevertheless, Trudy is an astoundingly insightful drop-out from the world of reason. Trudy is blessed with the swagger of the street smart. Undaunted by her mental breakdown she reports, “See, the human mind is kind of like...a piñata. When it breaks open, there's a lot of surprises inside. Once you get the piñata perspective, you see that losing your mind can be a peak experience.” Trudy has been put into contact with "space aliens" as a result of a bout with electro-shock therapy. It is the space aliens who are conducting the search for intelligent life. At some point, Trudy embraces the challenge of articulating for the space aliens an infallible mark of intelligence, the ability to recognize and appreciate art. Trudy holds up a can of Campbell’s soup and tells the aliens, this is soup. Then she holds up Andy Warhol’s painting of a Campbell’s soup can and says, this is art. This is soup, and this is art. Trudy shuffles the two behind her back, then asks the bewildered aliens to distinguish the soup and the art. Forty plus students crammed into a room for two. Is that absurd or is that brilliant? Sometimes the line between madness and genius is devilishly, delicately and dangerously fine.

Students come to Mount Michael for a variety of reasons. Primarily we hope they come to get an education. Perhaps to acquire the ability to distinguish the difference between soup and art. Don’t let me leave you with the mistaken impression that soup is unimportant. Soup and art are both forms of nourishment, one for the body and one for the soul. You need soup so that you won’t physically starve to death. You need art so that you won’t spiritually starve to death. Unfortunately you can starve either way if you get the two confused. Hopefully your Mount Michael education will provide you with resources to earn soup for yourself and your family. Hopefully your Mount Michael education will also provides you with resources to both create and to enjoy art. In a few fortunate circumstances, your soup and your art might even coincide.

Engrained in the American psyche is the conviction that we all have rights and freedoms. That truth has metamorphosed into a sense of entitlement to self satisfaction. Success in life is equated with comfort. It becomes a temptation to always choose the path of least resistance. I think that is a mistake. When making decisions about where you will go and what you will do with your life, do not decide on the basis of what is the most comfortable or the most financially beneficial. In Korea, they tell a story of two brothers Nolbu and Hungbu. Nolbu the older is mean and selfish. Hungbu the younger is kind and generous. One day Hungbu drove off a snake attacking a nest of swallows. A chick fell from the nest and broke its leg. Hungbu mended the chick’s leg. Next spring, the swallow returned to Hungbu’s house and dropped a seed onto the ground. The seed grew into a vine of magic gourds. When Hungbu opened the first gourd, rice poured out. From the next came gold and silver. Meanwhile the jealous Nolbu heard of his brother’s good fortune. So Nolbu deliberately broke the leg of a sparrow then mended it. That sparrow returned also with a seed. But when the vine grew, out from the gourds came dirt, then spiders and bugs and finally a monster. In fright, Nolbu ran to his brother who welcomed him into his home. Nolbu learned to imitate his brother’s kindness and generosity and the two brothers lived happily thereafter.

The tale is not simply about rewards and punishments. It also emphasises the moral power of the younger brother to influence his elder brother to reform his behaviour. So seniors instead of settling for self-satisfaction: put your talents at the service of others. There are challenges a plenty. Political instability – think of Darfur; disease – think of cancer, or malaria or AIDs; natural disasters – think of hurricane Katrina or Greensburg, Kansas; hunger – think of Africa. Many people suffer in misery. Trudy says: "I always wondered why somebody doesn't do something about that. Then I realized I was somebody." You are somebody. More than that you are blessed with ambition, abilities and resources. And even better than that, you have an education. Put those gifts to the service of your family, of your friends and especially to the service of those who are less privileged than you. As Christians, we believe that the face of Christ especially hides behind the eyes of the needy, the disenfranchised and those who live on the fringes of society. People like Trudy the bag lady. Don’t be afraid of them. Don’t disparage them. And worst of all, don’t ignore them. Reach out and help them.

I extend my prayerful best wishes to the seniors who graduate today. Congratulations to their parents, grandparents, family and friends who are here to celebrate their accomplishment. No small measure of discipline and sacrifice has been required to make this day possible. Graduates be sure to express your gratitude to your parents, and to your mother especially. It is after all mother’s day.

And what about “The Search for Intelligent Life in the Universe?” Trudy’s space aliens triumphantly return to that they have discovered the way to distinguish soup from art. The aliens call it the goose bump experience. The play itself the aliens conclude is just soup. But watching people gathered in a theater, laughing together, enjoying the play, reveling in its insights into human behavior, that they decide is art. It gave them goosebumps. Seniors I am confident that one day you will find your Mount Michael education was soup. It will provide you nourishment that will sustain you throughout your life. But I also hope that one day when you are in a reflective mood, it will give you goosebumps. Then you will know your experience was something more, maybe even something bordering on art.

Seniors, you know Mount Michael is more than a school. It is also home. You are always welcome here. Come back and see us. Good luck. God bless you and God be with you.