“Go in peace,” my priest concludes Mass every Sunday.
Don’t worry. This isn’t a religion column. I’ve always wanted to write about religion, but my conscience (and my editors) has always gotten the better of me. My first topic was going to be entitled “Protestants are messing up Christianity for the rest of us.” I’m sure you can see how that would’ve been a bad idea.
However, I will take the liberty of selecting these incredibly meaningful three words from the Catholic Mass and expand them into the wider context of my pending graduation from this here University.
Yep, you heard (read) me right: I’m graduating this May. I’ll still be in town next year as a graduate student, but I won’t be writing columns anymore. I think that I’ve said just about all that I’ve needed to say in the Technician Viewpoint section over the past two years.
If you are graduating in May, you know the feeling of impending and abrupt change. Maybe you know what you’re doing post graduation, maybe you don’t. Either way, the odds are good that whatever you’ll be doing with yourself come June is going to be a big change from the reckless abandon with which you’ve (hopefully) been living during the past few years.
Now, you don’t have to walk in May to go through some drastic change in your life. Everybody’s life is changing all of the time. Everybody’s dreams and aspirations and personality and values are in constant flux. Your relationships with other people — even your closest relationships — change and evolve (sometimes painfully and often for the better).
Look, I’m not a sociologist or a psychoanalyst. I’m just a soon-to-be-retired columnist who would normally rather write about my latest late-night adventures or rant about the various injustices inflicted upon young people by the ever-oppressive man (he lives in Cary, by the way). But today I need to tell you all to go in peace.
What is peace? Only you can answer this question. Whatever it is that brings peace to you, go with it. Bring peace to others and bring peace to the world.
Try to lead a peaceful life. Be content with yourself and your community. Forgive and forget. Focus your passions constructively. Be a moderator of extremities and an extremity in the face of the moderation. Be an oxymoron of Americana.
I know I sound sappy: I hate sounding sappy. I promise, I’m normally a cynical and sarcastic humbug. It’s just that nothing bothers me more than when people abuse each other. Yeah, it’s the abuse that I just can’t stand. Treat everybody with dignity and respect, be peaceful to everybody you know.
Have fun, live it up, do whatever it is that you do. Live and learn, laugh and cry, love and work, drink and eat, lead and serve, create and destroy and most of all be happy, because happiness begets peace.
You can still hate Chapel Hill though. That’s always allowed.
So to recap, I’m not writing columns anymore. Thanks for reading. Peace out.
If you think you can fill Ken’s shoes, e-mail viewpoint@technicianonline.com.