What is your gift?

Hey community. 

Prior to my kid’s high school graduation last week, tensions were running high. A student had drawn the words “Free Palestine” on a building, prompting a more vigorous response from the school than we have seen in our entire time as part of the school community. Most of the response focused on restrictions around graduation events, such as this:

• We expect you not to engage in disruptive activity or political demonstrations of any kind during senior events.

For my 18-year old and many of their friends, this was yet another failure on the part of the school to address the genocide in Gaza and create space for productive conversation since October 7, 2023. As a family, we have been angry, frustrated, hurt at the school’s response in the past few months.  

The fact that the commencement ceremony happened without “incident” is both discouraging and hopeful. Discouraging that a place that is supposed to foster critical thinking and dialogue can wield institutional power to silence and restrict those very things. Hopeful because these young people still owned that ceremony – with their messages of “making the most of everything we get”, with the music they played jubilantly, and with their support of one another.  

In Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer’s talks about the importance of ceremony and commencement is an important community celebration, unlike birthdays, anniversaries etc. Here’s what she says:

The ceremony reminds them of where they come from and the responsibilities to the community that has supported them. Asking what is our responsibility is perhaps to ask, what is our gift and how shall we use it?

That is what I leave you with, dear ones. I hope you’ve discovered your gift and are using it. Mine is to be authentic and by being so, to inspire others to do the same. 

With a heart that is breaking but also full,

Sayu