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Tom Hanks came to the Skyline High School graduation this year. It makes a lot of sense, considering he is an alum and he probably didn't have a lot of other pressing engagements. And he lived through his exposure to the virus that kept the affair a stay-at-home experience. And he is a mensch. John Krazinski crowded a bunch of A-listers into his online graduation, including appearances by Steven Spielberg, Jon Stewart, Malala, and Oprah. Not that it would have been any more memorable if the guy who played Jim on The Office Zoom-bombed your online ceremony.
But these are interesting times. Times that are heightened by the shared experience of a global pandemic. We are all in this together, so each of these events become heightened in ways we might not have expected.
So let me grouse here for a moment. I don't remember who my high school graduation speaker was. I had the terrible misfortune of living through high school in the late seventies in Boulder, Colorado. I suppose I might have held out hope for Dan Fogelberg or Scott Carpenter. Nope. I would have remembered either one of them. For that matter, I have a vivid memory of the following year's commencement speaker: Mo Siegel. The hippie dippy herbal tea maker that became a millionaire in that little college town at the foot of the Rocky Mountains.
Am I bitter?
Maybe a little.
Kind of like the way you find out a few days later that the person who was just a few people behind you in line at the grocery store was the one millionth customer and they got a lifetime supply of Pop Tarts. A fuss has to be made, from time to time, and we cannot always be part of that fuss. Being honored for your place in line seems like a bit of a cheat, like the mild antagonism I hold for the tenth caller on those radio contests. You don't have to answer a question or anything? You just happen to be in a certain place at a certain time and place. Congratulations on taking up space at that moment. We really couldn't be more proud.
But back here in a land that is a tad more forgiving, I will say that occupying this particular time and space isn't so much an honor but a chore. The lights that shine right now will come back over and over across the years as "The Class Of Covid" makes its way in the world. College graduates face a particularly tough row to hoe as they are being let out into the world in the midst of a crippling recession. I'm not sure even Tom Hanks can make that okay.