All in all, it was a very memorable day. The foot of snow that fell throughout the day kept things interesting - and sadly kept my grandma J. from coming. My dad, sister Heather, and Maren's parents all made it though.We had a small ceremony for the School of Information grads in the morning, and then the University-wide one for everyone later in the day. It was fun to see my adviser Paul R. again. He is an outstanding person and an exceptionally insightful individual. I especially appreciate his open-mindedness and ability to inspire the best in others. We had a fun talk with him about his great-grandfather who started a Jewish colony (called Clarion) in Central Utah at the turn of the century in a town very close to Scipio and Gunnison where many of Maren's ancestors lived at the time.
One nice thing about having my dad around is that he is a great photographer. To keep them entertained during the LONG afternoon ceremony he took these great pictures of the girls:
During the photo-shoot various "important" speakers gave their rehearsed speeches, and accolades. Perhaps the biggest surprise was that the commencement speaker was exceptional. The invited speaker was Francis Collins, the head of the Human Genome project (who used to be a U of M faculty member). Coincidentally, I had read through a nice chunk of his interesting book The Language of God on one of our regular Barnes and Noble date nights a few weeks ago. When they announced him I wondered if he would speak abou
t faith at all. Sure enough, he mentioned the importance of asking and searching for answers to the important questions that faith inspires (why are we here? where did we come from?). As in the book, he reaffirmed his belief that science and religious belief in a personally loving God are not at odds with one another - despite the fact that many scientists and religious people put them at odds with one another so often. It was nice to hear and certainly a view I have held since my days at BYU where I took at course on the history of science where we talked extensively about the interplay between science and religion. (For those of you interested in the topic I highly recommend Henry J. Eyring's Reflections of a Scientist). Anyway, it was a very non-traditional, but inspiring speech - especially unexpected at the University of Michigan. But the clincher was his final suggestions for all of us - to keep life fun - which he demonstrated by playing his guitar and singing some alternate words to the song "I did it my way" (something about being a student and doing it "you're way" until he was a professor and now his students do it "his way").
After the talks I had my moment of "glory" where I walked next to Paul, got "hooded", walked across stage, and had my name read off of a 3x5 card, got to shake Mary S. Coleman's hand, and posed for my mug shot which I can buy for a premium :) I also managed to see Lynn's friend Melanie who was a flag-bearer (apparently she has some hidden talents) and graduated as well (she's the one on the end).While sitting at graduation I had a memory jump out at me of a visit that I made to the School of Information prior to applying for the program. I remember standing in the Ehricher room as Sue (one of the administrative staff) took me on a tour and feeling the spirit confirm to me that we would end up there. It turned out to be the same room that I defended my dissertation in all these years later. Maren and I have had other similar confirmations and have recognized the hand of the Lord guiding our lives. I am sure that the associations that I have made in Ann Arbor (and elsewhere) are more than happenstance and I appreciate the way in which my life has been guided - and look forward to seeing where we still have to go...
And here is one more of Ash who missed out on the photo-shoot, as she was getting her beauty sleep:
