Dear Friends,
This is the time of year for graduation talks. I have given way too many of them over the years and heard more than my share of them as well. Occasionally, there is one that has a new or creative approach that will grab my attention and make me think about life in a new way. Or it might be the person who is giving the talk has a personal story which moves me to listen with an open mind and heart.
I experienced that recently while listening to the 60 Minutes interview of Ben Sasse. You are probably aware that the former Senator from Nebraska is dying of Pancreatic Cancer. He was supposed to die earlier this spring, but because of a new cancer treatment he is still alive. He will still die of cancer, just not as soon.
His approaching death has taken the wisdom he possessed in this life and made it stronger, more focused with a power to engage listeners on a deep level. He recently wrote an opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal. It is a kind of graduation talk. In it, he recommends steps parents can take to prepare their children to live in the coming age of artificial intelligence. Here is a little bit of what he wrote:
The family is the source of the habits that we’re going to need to cultivate the next generation. Nobody loves your kids as much as you do. Loves are local, and creating the habits that foster the love of the good, the true and the beautiful begins at home. The bad news of what I’m suggesting is that it’s deeply inconvenient. The good news is that parenting has always been inconvenient. It’s the ultimate inconvenience. So let’s flag four starter habits:
- Reading. Fewer than half of Americans read a book last year. That is a national crisis. Shorter attention spans are killing our imagination. Before our kids even learn the alphabet, we hand them tablets, and we know from neurological imagery that it is rotting their brains. Families need to read aloud together again to build children’s affection for books and to build a shared library—a family canon to inform the character of a home…
- Hard work. This habit can start at an early age. Sure,it’s easier to load and unload the dishwasher and put away the laundry yourself, but we miss the opportunity if we don’t bring the next generation into the labor. Over time, small jobs become medium jobs and ultimately pave the way for hard tasks…
- Tech sabbaths. We should love work but not worship it. We need to be able to set it aside, recognizing that we need rest…Lock up our devices and keep them away from the family meal. Pay attention to the people around the table, the bread, the conversation, and the hugs and hands…
- Serious travel. In the same way that learning another language helps us understand our native tongue more deeply, travel forms character through lived experience.Don’tview this as vacation. “Travel” has the same etymological root as “travail.” To travel should be a kind of work. It takes work to leave your comfort zone. If you live in a city, you need to experience the country. If you live in the country, you need to know how to navigate the city…
Character, whether of an individual or of a nation, is molded by habits and by time. This republic requires men and women to do long-form deliberation, serious thinking, honest humility and daily striving. What good is it to gain the whole world if we forfeit the souls that we’re supposed to form? We can’t expect to remain free without being virtuous, we can’t be bold without being rooted, we can’t be great without aiming first to be good…
Thanks, Ben. May your remaining days on earth continue to be a gift to so many.
Peace,
Fr. Damian