| What allows us to remove our masks? What | | | | his or her support team; comment on the path |
| feeling, movement, supportive touch or perfect | | | | each had taken to arrive at the graduation |
| word makes space for a person to be seen? | | | | podium and state intentions for the future. The |
| These are not new questions. In fact, they are | | | | young lady who had presented the Tai Chi |
| ageless. Philosophers from the history of time | | | | program honored her Afro-American bloodline, |
| have asked these same queries in a variety of | | | | one line of heritage at a time, and closed by |
| ways. | | | | raising her arms to heaven and singing the names |
| In January, I was privileged to attend my older | | | | of God in twenty different languages. My |
| daughter's graduation ceremony at Goddard | | | | daughter honored all of us who had supported her |
| College in Plainfield, VT. Goddard describes itself as | | | | 13 year endeavor to become a teacher and |
| "at the heart of your mind". Its mission | | | | finished by requesting that her husband join her |
| statement, in part, states, "Our mission is to | | | | on stage to receive her Bachelor's Degree since |
| advance the theory and practice of learning by | | | | he, too, had earned it. He had maintained the |
| undertaking new experiments . . . .Goddard | | | | house for her while working a full time job so that |
| encourages students to become creative, | | | | she could work during the day and study every |
| passionate, lifelong learners". | | | | night. And so it went. |
| As mission statements go, it could be considered | | | | So, where do people put their masks during those |
| almost typical. Typical, that is, until you arrive on | | | | tear-filled moments when the soul in each person |
| campus. Your first taste is a sense of an | | | | present is touched so deeply? Behind that mask is |
| atmosphere that reminds you of a young colt | | | | each parent's lost dream that he or she sees |
| straining against a bridle, autumn leaves blowing in | | | | supported by a school peopled with advisory |
| the wind while the peace and serenity of samadhi | | | | personnel who encourage the deepest searching |
| overtakes your mind. It is amorphous, waiting to | | | | into each student's depths. In each graduate's |
| be discovered, hoping you will remove your mask | | | | heart is the hope of the future and a conviction |
| and glimpse its identity. With your mask on, it | | | | fueled by the constant, daily reminder that he or |
| becomes invisible. | | | | she has been heard; has been given the |
| The graduation ceremony was preceded by | | | | opportunity to find his voice, her deepest |
| presentation of the graduates' theses. I attended | | | | commitment to life. |
| my daughter's, of course, and together we | | | | Coming away from this profound ritual, I realized |
| attended another in which a young lady | | | | that what I had witnessed is the same essence |
| demonstrated a Tai Chi, Chi Kung program that | | | | that propels and feeds me in my daily work. It is |
| she had created to enable physically challenged | | | | the essence of my soul as it was the essence of |
| people to learn movement. She had found her | | | | the soul of that graduating class. It is the |
| passion and created a path to channel its results. | | | | commitment that each of us made when we |
| My daughter's thesis told of her student teaching | | | | began life on planet Earth - to give all that we |
| experience in which she recreated a portion of | | | | have from our incomprehensible depths without |
| the already existing class structure to allow time | | | | masking it with a civilized veneer; to surrender to |
| for one-on-one interaction with each pupil. The | | | | our calling so that the piece we give to mankind is |
| new model has been retained by the classroom's | | | | unmistakable; to find no compromise to our |
| existing teacher. | | | | integrity in daily life. |
| Nothing could have prepared me for the sheer | | | | As closure, I will use the final words of one |
| raw emotion of the graduation ceremony - one in | | | | graduating student, "I honor each person who has |
| which every student, advisor and parent would be | | | | looked into my eyes and seen my soul". Maskless. |
| maskless. Each graduate was given time to honor | | | | |