Robert Pinsky's '99 speech was as good as I have ever seen/heard. Happily, although I thought it was no longer available on video, it may be, although I couldn't get it to work. Thanks to Tree Weird for finding the list that includes transcript and video. http://news.stanford.edu/news/1999/june1...616.html. Pinsky talks about how ceremonies that are worth anything are about two things, honoring the wisdom of the old (including the dead) and nurturing the young, part of which is passing on the old wisdom to new generations. It is very fine. I lifted its ideas shamelessly a time or two, but with attribution of course. Here's some of what he says:
"I mean the two great requirements of the human animal, without which human community is corrupt or useless, namely, caring for the young ones and honoring the wisdom of the old ones, including the ways and wisdom of the dead. The tribe or community or nation that fails at either of these missions brings woe and destruction on itself. Today the graduates pass symbolically from being the objects of the first concern, young ones who have been nurtured, to bearing the responsibilities of the second, those who are supposed to care for the young and who will preserve and extend the wisdom of the dead."
Powerful stuff and beautifully delivered. I became a kind of Pinsky fan after listening to that speech.
  Our graduation speaker ('76) was Carla Hills, whom I saw on the plane a couple of years ago. I told her about being in the audience on that hot day listening to her address. Her speech was very good. I remembered it although mostly I was sad that day to see my undergraduate idyll come to an end.
"I mean the two great requirements of the human animal, without which human community is corrupt or useless, namely, caring for the young ones and honoring the wisdom of the old ones, including the ways and wisdom of the dead. The tribe or community or nation that fails at either of these missions brings woe and destruction on itself. Today the graduates pass symbolically from being the objects of the first concern, young ones who have been nurtured, to bearing the responsibilities of the second, those who are supposed to care for the young and who will preserve and extend the wisdom of the dead."
Powerful stuff and beautifully delivered. I became a kind of Pinsky fan after listening to that speech.
  Our graduation speaker ('76) was Carla Hills, whom I saw on the plane a couple of years ago. I told her about being in the audience on that hot day listening to her address. Her speech was very good. I remembered it although mostly I was sad that day to see my undergraduate idyll come to an end.