To the Graduating Classes of 2020

I offer congratulations and heartfelt encouragement to the many graduating Classes of 2020. You have worked hard to get where you are, and your families are certainly proud of you. You are graduating at what seems like a near cataclysmic time in history. Many things are happening in your life and in particular right now and in recent memory that have never happened before, and it is clear that we are on a path that will continue to see major challenges to our way of living and the ways our children and grandchildren will live in the future.

The good news is that you can be a powerful catalyst for an awakening. You can be a generation of healers that can change the course of human history with your diligence, intelligence and most importantly, your hope, love and compassion. You can be social activists and help others less fortunate than you. You can address the needs of the poor, the elderly, the infirm, people of color, native Americans and children. You can help reverse the course of the climate crisis, and you can vote and create a system of government representation that addresses the interests of all the people.

You can do all this because your time is now. The great awakening is now. The great realization, reckoning and epiphany are all now. And you are in the lead.

Good luck. Everyone wants you to mightily succeed.

(Original artwork by Joan E. Hargate)