Yes, a excellent talk for a wonderful occasion!
Marsha On Dec 21, 2012, at 10:01 AM, david buchanan <[email protected]> wrote: > > Commencement Talk 2012-- by Regent Professor Michael Sexson (He was also the > Master of Ceremonies for MSU's Chautauqua 2012). > “The Right Rite” > President Cruzado, Distinguished guests, faculty and staff, friends and > families of the graduating class of 2012, I am privileged to accept on behalf > of Robert Pirsig the Honorary Degree of Dr. of Letters from Montana State > University. > After almost fifty years, we acknowledge the achievements of this writer and > teacher whose philosophical novels have entertained and edified millions > throughout the world. To quote the nominating letter sent to the board of > regents, “It is rare to have a Montana honoree whose writings speak so > eloquently to what may be the most pressing issue of the present time: the > recognition of quality in all our lives.” > In the video we just saw, Robert Pirsig refers to what he calls the “seed > crystal” moment in his life, when a colleague watering her plants asks him as > he sits in his office at Montana Hall if he is teaching quality to his > students. On the mythic level, this is his “call to adventure, which often > begins inauspiciously, say, with the loss of a golden ball down a well where > lives a charming frog, or a cryptic remark from a woman watering plants. A > simple thing that puts into motion an unstoppable story. Once the call to > adventure has been heard, it cannot be unheard. Some great change is in > store. Something important has commenced. Pirsig himself doesn’t use such > language to talk about this summons. Instead, he uses the language of > science, of chemistry. In a supersaturated solution, he writes, “when you > dissolve material at a high temperature and then cool the solution, the > material sometimes doesn’t crystallize because the molecules don’t know how. > They require something to get them started, a “seed crystal, a grain of dust > or even a tap on the glass.” > In a few minutes, President Cruzado will provide for the class of 2012, the > “seed crystal moment.” She will say and do things that will get the molecules > moving completing the miracle of metamorphosis. In fairy tale and myth, this > is when the wooden doll becomes a real boy, the girl a princess and the frog > a prince. > Now, President Cruzado will not be turning frogs into princes on this stage > (although I wouldn’t put it past her to do such things in her spare time). > But she will be performing perhaps lesser acts of magic--- turning everyday > students and writers into masters, into doctors, and, most impressive, > supersaturated students into real graduates ready to step over the threshold > and begin the perilous adventure. > But she can’t do this by herself. She needs your help. You need to set aside > for these few moments your skepticism about rites and rituals. I’m not asking > for your belief, that you put your hands together and speak the words “I > believe” so that Tinker Bell might arise from her death trance. I’m asking > only that you suspend your disbelief so as to imagine that this ceremony > actually, with its words, sights, and deeds, brings into our presence the > very goddess whose name appears in the word “ceremony,” “Ceres,” Roman > goddess of grain, of your morning “cereal” who, as the Greek goddess Demeter, > established the mysteries at Eleusis, where initiates were led into a large > chamber not unlike the one we are in now, and things were said, things were > seen, and things were done that utterly changed their lives. When their > friends on the outside of the temple saw their shining faces, they asked what > had happened in there. But these ancient graduates refused to discuss > specifics. simply putting their fingers to their lips to suggest silence and > whispering: “it was good.” > If Robert Pirsig were here today, he probably would not advise the class of > 2012 to conquer worlds, acquire possessions, achieve status. That’s not what > these books, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and Lila, are about. > He would probably say what the woman watering her plants said to him, “Are > you pursuing quality,” only he might phrase it this way: “Do the Right > Thing.” And he would add with a twinkle---- “You can spell that word either > way----- r i g h t, or r i t e. We need to get the ceremony or the ritual > correct. We need to get the rite right, right? in order for it to do its > work of creating what is memorable and what is best. And now we are in the > shadow of quality---to the Greeks “arete”----what is excellent, a ritual well > performed or, most simply, what is well done. The essay you wrote Alexandra. > The music you played Ashley. The problem you solved Logan. The people you > helped Joseph. What better words to hear from our teachers: “Well done.” > Secondly he would say: Do not think about what is new but what is best. Next > he would not say “Be Good,” but “Take care of your goodness.” And he would > add lastly, “and for goodness sake, never, never, never forget.” > Most of our lives fall into the oblivion of forgetfulness. At best we have > vague memories of the great bulk of our experiences. But some things we > remember because they were occasions in which what was seen, said and done > were performed in a state of heightened consciousness. It is the purpose of > ritual and ceremony ----all the spectacle and inflated rhetoric, the pomp and > circumstance----to be memorable. All the rest might pass away but these > moments of the perfect concert of words, sights, and deeds, will not pass > away. Twenty, thirty years later, if the right/rite thing is done here and > now, you --the class of 2012---will remember-----you will be able to recreate > these happenings out of the great well of memory--the moments in which you > were, in the twinkling of an eye--changed -and you will say, referencing > Shakespeare’s Henry V: “I was there and it was good.” Can you put aside > your skepticism for a moment and imagine this? > We began with the story of the woman watering her plants who asks Mr. Pirsig > a question that changes his life. We end with an even more inauspicious > incident that profoundly changes his mind. Both incidents have the same > setting: the state of Montana where the air is thinner and the cliffs sheer > and frightful The first takes place at Montana Hall in the center of campus, > which, in myth is the axis mundi, the center of the world. The second takes > place in Lame Deer, Montana where Pirsig, as he writes in the last pages of > his second book LILA, tells of walking down a dirt road with a couple of > friends, including a Cheyenne tribal elder by the name of John Woodenlegs > (whose name gives me pleasure to speak for by speaking correctly, performing > the right rite, I conjure him up, though dead to this world, and remember > that this great magician came to this campus in 1979 and parted a cloud so > that everyone at the museum of the rockies could witness a total solar > eclipse--a true story--Life magazine said so. John Woodenlegs, it’s good you > could visit us here today). The walkers, having nothing to do, begin to > follow a mangy dog down the dirt road, letting him decide their path. One > member of the group asks Woodenlegs an innocuous question, just to make > conversation. > “John, what kind of dog is that?” Woodenlegs stops and reflects a moment and > pauses and reflects again then says, “That’s a good dog.” In the simple > statement of a Montana Native who refuses to see the dog as a specific breed, > but rather as a manifestation of value, Pirsig experiences an epiphany, a > recognition parallel in power to the seed crystal moment at the center of the > world and he realizes that he has at last found the best instance of what he > was looking for in 800 pages containing the journey of a lifetime-----the > presence of Quality. > Graduates of Montana State University Here is your charge. Do the Right > Thing. Think not of what’s new but what’s best. Take care of your goodness. > And never never never forget. When asked thirty years from now where you went > to school, would you please say, why at the center of world, at Montana State > University in Bozeman, and when asked what kind of education you got, pause, > and say, ‘It was a good education.” > And finally, to Robert Pirsig: I hope I got right (in both spellings of that > word) what you might have said had you been able to be here. Mr. Pirsig (who > has now become through the great power of the mysteries Dr. Pirsig--Dear > Robert: Take care of your goodness. And thank you for what you’ve given to so > many millions around the world, and for what you've given to these special > ones, this band of brothers and sisters gathered here on this day we shall > forever remember, December 15, 2012, this short day of frost and sun, to > celebrate an end which is also a beginning, in this temenos, this sacred > precinct, this hallowed place at the center of the world where mountains and > minds meet. > I am deeply grateful to have this opportunity to speak on your behalf. Thank > you. > > Moq_Discuss mailing list > Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. > http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org > Archives: > http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ > http://moq.org/md/archives.html Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org/md/archives.html
