Excerpt and poem for the Class of 2003 of The Waldorf School in Lexington, MA
God and Satan were walking down a road. God bent down to pick something up. He gazed at it glowing radiantly in his hand. Then Satan became very curious and asked,
“What’s that you have there?”
“This,” God said, “is Truth.”
Satan said, “Here, let me have it; I’ll organize it for you.”
Dear Class,
If I have any words of wisdom at all—they would be: Don’t allow anyone to organize truth for you. That is too easy and too dangerous for your morality and for your freedom. That would mean that you abdicate responsibility for yourself and acting on your own ideals. And one must act on ideals that are truly part of one's being, which is sometimes harder than following the lead of others. Einstein said: "To punish me for my contempt for authority, fate made me authority myself.”
I believe we must all strive to be authority for ourselves. We do not have to act out of instinct, genetics, desires, fear or handed-down traditions or perspectives, however worthy. Rather, each one of us must reflect on our relationship to the world, to each other, to our true selves and live out of that orientation. This is what we have often discussed in our classes.
You have explored in your studies some of the greatest works of literature, and received broad and deep education and, thus, the opportunity to think and reflect. Discussing and understanding those great works as guides in conjunction with your other studies and experiences, hopefully, have inspired you to continute to formulate questions, and transform ideas into ideals. Living and acting out of those ideals that you have made your own will create the possibility of your becoming your own moral guide and authority.
Remember your main lesson The Divine Comedy with Mrs. Wells? After Dante comes through the Inferno and Purgatorio, he stands at the top of Mt. Purgatory ready to enter the last of the three realms: Paradiso. His guide has been Virgil, who must now leave him, but not before he bestows upon him a crown and a mitre, symbolizing that Dante is now king and priest of his own life, his own authority because he has earned it as witness to the consequences of abdicating that right, as the souls in torment have done.
I wish for you and have the confidence that you aleady see and will continue to pursue the universal truth in beauty and goodness, in our human capacity to "seek, to find and not to yield." At every moment, here and now, you are the only one who can take ideas your ideals into the world, love and live them.
I would like to close with a poem as a gift to the class of 2003 (a parchment scroll with poem handed to each student)
Here and Now
Now when there is no truth
here where everything and nothing is real
and all paths lead
to everywhere and nowhere
refuse to stand at either pole
or be forever lost in between
Know one thing:
Look to the the fixed star
navigate with your soul consciousness
whoever, wherever you are
above, below, around—and into all things
All things exist in relation to you
orbit in your sphere
are held in balance by you
live by your center of warmth and light
Become the Sun--
Here and Now!
