April Not In Paris, But Idaho--Part IV

As we waited for the University convocation to start, we saw a couple of people whom we knew from our hometown, but who had recently moved to Austin, Texas. We sort of shouted acknowledgments to them, and wondered why they were at the graduation as they did not have any children old enough to attend pre-school, much less college. Her sister was graduating that day. We teased them about missing the old town, and asked if they were able to attend the South by Southwest festival. They had moved in the day it had closed. Now they would have to go through the long, hot Texas summer without a lot to look forward to.

Mercifully, the convocation ceremony started shortly thereafter. Kim Clark, the president of BYU-Idaho, conducted the ceremony and provided the opening words. He was mercifully short. A few years ago, when Dorey graduated from BYU, Clark was given an honorary degree. We were sitting in 100 degree heat in the Marriott Center on the BYU campus. Clark kept talking, talking talking. Not only was he boring, he was boring by telling us what a neat guy he was. The speech has become legend in the family about how not to speak. First, don’t talk in glowing terms about yourself. Second, don’t be boring. Third, if you are boring, shut up about it, especially when you are killing your audience because they are sitting in a hot box.

The speaker for today’s ceremony was Neil Andersen. On the Sunday before the graduation, Andersen had been called to be an Apostle. He said that he had only been set apart to his calling the day before. You could tell that he was a bit overwhelm at the moment. He tried to make the distinction between worldly wisdom and Godly wisdom. Godly wisdom was more valuable than worldly wisdom, although worldly wisdom is useful. Heard it before, nothing too original. My father spent the night after the talk dissecting it, concluding that it sounder better than it stood up to the analysis. I said it was a graduation talk which in general don’t bear much analysis. It’s neither the point or purpose.

After a couple of student talks--yawn--the ceremony happily ended with the graduates wandering out. We still did not see Christian. But we were on to the next portion of the ceremony--the college graduation.

But first, the stats: Yesterday, I walked 13,020 steps. Overall, as of this moment, 6:43 p.m on Wednesday, July 29, 2009, I have walked 407,926 steps in 34 days.