Talk given at the Tri-Beta Society induction ceremony, Feb. 24, 2000

Thank you for having me here tonight to provide tonight's talk. To you, the newest inductees in the Tri-Beta Society, congratulations!

I was going to give a short talk tonight about matters biological and philosophical. But a funny thing happened on the way to that forum. I wanted to begin by congratulating you, and I became interested in the etymological roots of the word "congratulations", since we tend to say it....without thinking about it. So I thought about it. It comes from the Latin words that mean "to rejoice with". To say "congratulations", therefore, is to say "Let's rejoice with each other"--but rejoicing together is something else that we tend to do...without thinking about it. So scrapping my original plan for a talk, I'd like us to think about events designed for us to rejoice with each other. In other words, I'd like us to think about public ceremony.

Ask yourself this question: Why even have a public ceremony to offer congratulations and bestow today's honor upon you? After all, we could have approached the matter differently. Why not instead send each of you a letter? Or, if a personal touch is more appropriate, why not instead have Dr. Mecham speak individually with each of you, noting your accomplishment in biology? I am not asking this question about public ceremony frivolously. It bears serious consideration. Ceremonies take time, planning, often money.

Some would reply by claiming that a public ceremony (such as this, or such as graduation) is primarily a public relations event. On this view, the main point of the ceremony is to promote good relations with, say, parents and relatives. The ceremony is mostly for students to rejoice with THEM. I find this view misguided; so let me offer a different answer.

Our public manner of participation and expression is usually quite different than our private manner. Different for us and different for others. Think, for a moment, of the marriage ceremony: how the formality and community presence of a public ceremony add gravity and commitment to the vows. It is much easier to say "I do" one-on-one in private than it is in public. Or think of the inaugural address by a U.S. president: how its occurrence in public, and for the public, charges it with a meaning for our country that we feel in the marrow of our being.

Ceremonies help provide meaning, or rather they help provide a greater and different meaning than what we might find by ourselves in private. Rituals in general do this. In Rituals for Our Times, the authors argue that "rituals give us places to be playful, to explore the meaning of our lives, and to rework and rebuild...relationships. They connect us with our past, define our present life, and show us a path to the future." Public ceremonies are a form of ritual. So, public ceremonies, if they are good ones, well structured, strengthen the meaning of our acts, our plans, our lives, our common endeavors. They affirm values, solidify our resolve, shape our identity and the identity of our institutions and communities. And they place the importance of something purposely in the public space and the public time.

Public space and time are much different than our private space and private time. Our lives are lived mostly in private. Daily life becomes ordinary, mundane, routine. Thomas Moore, former Catholic monk, in his recent popular book, The Soul of Sex, reminds us that the soul needs breaks from the ordinary, experiences that depart from daily life, excursions into special realms that are charged with meaning, with symbol, with imagination, with heightened feeling. No doubt this is what drugs do for some people. Thomas Moore contends that this is what sex should accomplish for people. Certainly,this is what religious ceremony is designed to do as well--taking us on an excursion into that most special realm, the realm of the holy.

How will this ceremony affect you? How will it open you up? What symbols or other aspects of it will convey meaning to you? I can't know what your break from the ordinary will produce, what value and meaning you will find within you. Perhaps before you were not aware of feeling proud of what you were accomplishing, and now you consciously feel proud. Perhaps you look at yourself now with some amazement. Perhaps you look at biology with some awe. Perhaps you find yourself relieved, or afraid, or thankful, or peaceful, or grateful, or sorry, or confident, or inspired. Perhaps you now see that your work in biology is a secure academic foundation for the rest of your work. Perhaps you now see that you are more, or are capable of more, than you gave yourself credit for. Perhaps you now realize that your family treats you a bit differently than before, that your family context has changed some. Perhaps you now are more attuned to your future. Perhaps you find yourself with a religious insight and realize that the universe is becoming more conscious of itself, reaching a higher level of development, through you.

What is this public ceremony for? It serves many purposes all at once.

To note a point in your progress that points the way toward the future for you, since this is not a celebration of an endpoint in your journey down the path of knowledge.

What is this public ceremony for?

To affirm the value of disciplined study of a subject.

To praise high achievement, with the sacrifices it involves and the joy of new understanding that it brings.

What is this public ceremony for?

To provide an opportunity for you...to reflect...on yourself, and, to provide an opportunity for us...to reflect...on you...and on ourselves and on our institution and on our values, etc.

Where are you? Where have you come from? Where are you going? Was it worth it? What have you learned? How does this part of your life fit in with the identity and the life you are shaping?

What is this public ceremony for?

To break with the ordinary, to make public room for and give public approval of, whatever surfaces in you here and now--whatever feelings, whatever meaning. Don't force yourself to have an ordinary response tonight or be embarrassed if you find yourself responding in ways out of the ordinary. Be open to the extraordinary response that you may well find bubbling up within you. It may be positive; negative; or both. Whatever you find, whatever it is, we are here to rejoice with you in it.

Congratulations!