Why the Leaves Change in the Fall: Academic Platypus

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Our school had its graduation ceremony this Saturday.  In addition to the ceremony, an intrepid group of teachers made the rounds of four to five graduation parties as well.  It's an honor to be invited to a student's graduation party, an event usually reserved for family and close friends.  It's saying that they value what you've done for their child enough to consider you part of the family.

I was mulling this around in my head during the ceremony while a slide-show of the seniors was running along with the typical sentimental music by a popular country singer playing in the background.  One of the lines in the song struck me: "now I know why the leaves change in the Fall."  For the students, graduating is bitter-sweet since it means leaving friends and family.  It means saying goodbye to childhood.  However, the thrill of a new life and new experiences awaiting them tends to overwhelm this sober side.  For the parents, it seems to be in the reverse.  There is great joy and satisfaction in seeing a child cross the threshold and enter adulthood, but it is also an affirmation of the parents' death; one of life's great tasks has been finished and now they are left diminished.

This dynamic is what fills graduations with their special beauty.  If it is a Spring for the graduates' adult life, it is the end of their childhood and a sign that their parent's life is moving into its Autumn.  We get to see that in a crystal-clear moment at graduation and affirm it in Love as good.  Why do the leaves change in the Fall?  Because there is beauty even in aging and death if we accept it in Love.  

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