By James Lomuscio
The banner suspended from the ceiling of the field house, where 5,000 family and friends had gathered for the 127th commencement exercises at Westport’s Staples High School, spoke of the future.
Frank Corbo, who is retiring after almost 50 years as a Westport educator, led the academic procession. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com
“The future belongs to those who believe in the power of their dreams,” read the quote from Eleanor Roosevelt.
Valedictorian Eliza Clare Llewellyn, however, asked her 462 fellow graduates to focus on the present, especially today.
“We live more in the future than in the present,” she said. “Today there is so much to celebrate, not in the future, but in this moment.”
Eliza, who will attend Harvard University in the fall, said she embraced this philosophy after hearing it from a somewhat contrarian substitute sophomore English teacher who came to school “in untucked shirts and stoically refused to use a credit card or the Internet.”
“But he could illuminate the words on a page, the stanzas in a poem,” she added. “As we read ‘Slaughterhouse-Five’ traversing through time in Kurt Vonnegut’s universe, I vividly remember the teacher telling us to live in the present.
“He said, ‘When you’re old, you’re always thinking about the past. When you’re young, you are always thinking of the future. It’s hard to enjoy the moment to be in the now.’
“Something about that piece of advice resonated with me and it’s kept sneaking back to remind me, almost uncanny in the way it reappears and lingers.”
“On paper, were just another graduating class,” she said. ” …But as individuals, we are important by being in the present.”
She was quick to point out, though, that living in the present should not mean being impulsive and given to recklessness.
“We have to have an idea of who we are,” she said, citing Jungian philosophy. “We have to embrace the present, but not forget about the moments ahead.”
Her address received a round of cheers and applause.
Present and past seemed to blend for John McCarthy, a 1982 Staples graduate and a former Representative Town Meeting member, whose daughter Chrissy was about to graduate. Chrissy, he said, is going to spend a year studying in Indonesia before enrolling at Tulane University.
“I graduated from here, the first class to graduate inside the field house,” McCarthy said. “Staples is an important place.”
Introspection and reflection also marked Staples Principal John Dodig’s address.
He said that while the world may seem confusing to his generation, “to you that world makes perfect sense.” The generation weaned on computers and instant information will be more adept in meeting challenges as “as the pace of change will accelerate in your lifetime,” he said.
And as technology makes tasks and linear thinking easier, the challenge for the graduates will be to become more creative, “using the right side of the brain,” Dodig said.
He gave the example of automotive pioneer Robert Lutz, a former Marine and linear thinker who headed up divisions at General Motors and serves as BMW’s executive vice president.
Dodig said that a New York Times interview with Lutz showed he was more of a right brain, creative thinker than he had been given credit. Lutz saw automobiles as moveable art, Dodig said.
“He said his company was in the art business that just happened to provide transportation,” he said.
Dodig added that throughout their four years at Staples, the graduates were taught to stretch, using both sides of the brain, and because of that, “I have no doubt you will thrive in this world.”
“You will succeed,” he said. “Now go out there and make us all proud.”
Schools Superintendent Elliott Landon followed, urging all of the graduates, despite their drive and life’s pressures, “to make kindness a priority.”
“Start right now,” he said.
He also advised students to always embrace learning.
“Continue to learn for the sake of learning,” Landon said. ” …Just because you’re an engineer doesn’t negate the value of reading a poem.”
