The Cross and the Cleaver:…MESSAGE TO THE GRADS
Dear graduates of Kindersley and the area…
You are celebrating one of your life’s many steppingstones. Leaving a particular learning environment, you will enter one of many alternative realms. For some it will be a university, for some a trade school; others will embrace a life on the farm, the oilfield or other endeavors.
No matter where you go, and what you do, you will encounter people who are hungry. They will be your friends, your roommates, your co-workers, or fellow students. The hunger you will see, if you pay attention, will be the hunger for plain food. It will also be a hunger for friendship, for love, for human connection, for compassion and for understanding.
So, I would like to ask two things of you.
First, is that you be curious about the hunger of the people you encounter.
Second, is that you try to satisfy that hunger. In doing so, you will make this world a better place, you will be a source of hope, you will an embodiment of what humanity was meant to be.
Mahatma Gandhi said: “there are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of the bread.” I am not asking you to become religious unless you are already. I am asking you though to consider the option of human connection on that primal level that is food.
Recently, there are scores of food-themed movies and books. Very few, however, in my opinion, portray beautifully how food speaks to the soul, how food affects us to the core. Not just by being enjoyed, but by engaging the senses, the memories, and the hopes within us.
The movie “Ramen Girl” with Brittany Murphy demonstrates how the mood of the chef preparing the dish affects the mood of the person eating it. “Ratatouille” talks of simplicity, regrets for life’s choices and forgiving ourselves, while “Supersize Me” warns against embracing life’s excess and taking the easy way out of cooking your own dinner. Within that array of food-themed movies, “Babette’s Feast,” is my favourite. It is a visceral story of sacrifice, of love and of … GRADUATION 😉 … graduation from the uptight social norms, from “we don’t do it that way” or/and ‘we have never done it that way” attitude. It is about graduation into designing one’s own destiny while still considering the lives of those around us.
If you are not into movies and prefer to read instead, then forget “Julia and Julia” and pick up “The Last Suppers” by Mandy Mikulencak instead. It is a remarkable story of a cook preparing the last meals for death row inmates. A recurring theme in it is that of childhood memories and of wishing to recapture, or re-live them, once again despite the passing of time. The passing of time, after all, is what your graduation acknowledges.
As your journey of life continues, you will find yourself balancing various expectations. Expectations of your families and friends, of the artificial social norms, and of God (however you understand him or her).
Let me offer you a “recipe for attitude.” An alternative to my usual recipe for noodles, sandwich, or steak. It comes from an iconic Canadian band RUSH:
“A quality of justice
A quantity of light
A particle of mercy
Makes the color of right.”
/RUSH “Test for Echo”, 1996/
So, as you go into the hungry world, may you feed it with compassion, with love, with a non-judgmental attitude; instead of PBJ sandwiches or cream of tomato soup that not too many care for 😉.
Your brother …. The Rev. Piotr
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