Jonny's Commencement Speech

My husband gave the commencement address to the graduating class of 2026 on Thursday (the students chose their speaker, per school tradition). I hope you enjoy this glimpse into the mind of the esteemed editor of this blog (slash love of my life).

Hello, my name is Jonny Hinds. I’m the director of educational philosophy, but before that I taught most of these students chemistry and a few of them physics. I’m honored to be speaking today. Humbled to be asked. And a little nervous: this group is a bit bigger than my classes normally are.

I want to begin by saying congratulations to the graduating class. Some of you have walked through high school with grace. When you fell you got back up and enjoyed the road. Congratulations, it gets better. Keep up the good work. Some of you are more like I was. You’re sitting here still tired from the slog and wondering if that rain cloud is yours, or if it’s just on loan. Congratulations, it gets better. Keep up the good work.

I feel a little silly standing up here when I spend most of my days lying to young people and stealing ideas.

my vantage point in the audience, with the oldest and the baby in tow.

Mostly the lying is because it’s just plain unreasonable to teach children quantum mechanics. So, I say that atoms are like Legos, or tennis balls, or solar systems, or clouds. There’s something to each of those, but they aren’t quite true. Today isn’t like that. Today I’ll give you as close to a real understanding as I know how. Today I’ll talk about quantum life.

In light of my newfound honesty, I feel I should tell you that I take ideas from wherever I can find them. Today’s thoughts came from a whole slew of people like Plato, and Aristotle, Lewis, and Senior, Sertillange, and Abba Moses, Billy Collins, and Billy Shakespeare, even a few of you. It’s funny how many people spoke into this speech. My contribution has been about getting it short enough to say. I always appreciate a speech where someone says the obvious thing and sits back down, so I figured I’d try it.

As far as I can tell, your life isn’t a highlight reel of your proudest moments and greatest accomplishments. Instead, the fabric of your life is made of millions of mundane little moments. They are the quanta of life, little packets memory. If you can catch them as they come, you’ll shine whenever you close your eyes.¹

When I close my eyes, I see them like motes in the sun, and they are made of things like the wind blowing in the pines and my dad waiting up with his book until I get home. The smell of bubble gum in the car. The first taste of coffee in the pre-dawn. Peach cobbler burning as it boils over in the oven. Stubbing my toe in the winter, grabbing my coat as the house burns down, and my dad squeezing my shoulder goodnight. He did it every night, but it was extra long the night before he died.

All those little things are what Aristotle called “accidents,” and what keeps me up at night are all the ways that I ignore them. They are easy to miss, but I wouldn’t miss them for the world. I made a list of ways to help you notice the accidents of your existence.² My wife titled it, “Four Things Hinds Thinks That Only a Crazy Person Might Agree with… You Won’t Believe Number 3!”

First, you should smash your television.³ Your phone too. Try being social without the media: I think you’ll find the world is bright enough even when it’s not in technicolor.

Second, with all your newfound screen-free time, go touch grass. Feel the sun, eat dirt and see some stars. You might just be able convincing yourself that this is all really real.

Third, write home. Don’t just text, no one keeps a box of their favorite texts. If you live in town, bring your laundry over and visit with your mom and your annoying little sister while the dryer runs. If you can’t do either of those, give them a call on the weekends. That’ll be harder if you already smashed your phone, but those conversations are worth it. Even if they seem boring sometimes.

Finally, Bleys Pascal says that “all of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” Don’t add to all of humanity’s problems, instead, do less. Don’t rush. Try watching water boil. You might like it.

I wish I had some snarky scientific conclusion about how you’ve reached escape velocity and it’s time to be off: past the Moon and Mars. But the truth is that you don’t have to go so far to find stars. You have roots here, and people rooting for you. We are on your team, even if we haven’t always played perfectly. No matter where you go- or don’t- we’ll be here to swap stories when you come back.

I’ll close with a favorite quote of mine from Wendell Berry. Not so much because it’s about small things making an unforeseen difference—even though it is—but because I like it, and I don’t want you to leave without hearing it:

“A teacher’s major contribution may pop out anonymously in the life of some ex-student’s grandchild. A teacher, finally, has nothing to go on but faith, a student nothing to offer in return but testimony.”

Congratulations on your graduation. It’s hard work growing up, but you’re doing fine. Keep catching those quantum moments.

Thank you.

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On The Calendar: Pentecost

Tomorrow is apparently the third most important day on the Calendar, and it has a whole bunch of readings that go with it. I’ll just pull the Gospel from the Vigil this evening, which is John 7:37-39:

On the last and greatest day of the feast,
Jesus stood up and exclaimed,
“Let anyone who thirsts come to me and drink.
As Scripture says:
Rivers of living water will flow from within him who believes in me.”

He said this in reference to the Spirit
that those who came to believe in him were to receive.
There was, of course, no Spirit yet,
because Jesus had not yet been glorified.

We are much obliged next week to St. Philip Neri (May 26), the Italian priest with the larger-than-normal heart.

Thanks for being here! I’ll throw in a poll since I haven’t in such a long time…

My books: Eucharistic Saints, A Saint A Day

Not affiliate links or Amazon links. By all means, buy the books on Amazon, I just figure you know how to get there on your own.

+ Saint Sessions for YDisciple

1. Shoutout to that excellent Billy Collins poem “On Turning Ten,” becoming more poignant by the minute as our first is going to be ten the next time I blink.

2. This is a Senior/Quinn one, I think from one of their recorded conversations. It’s been up on the garage blackboard all year.

3. This is verbatim John Senior, The Restoration of Christian Culture, p. 22. Would love to hear how any other IHP appreciators engage with sentiments like this (Senior said this a lot, including once while being recorded on EWTN, much to the chagrin of Mother Angelica)—which is to say, I get it, but practical application of such a thing proves messy. Senior in Restoration: “First, negatively, smash the television set. The Catholic Church is not opposed to violence; only to unjust violence; so smash the television set. And, positively, put the time and money you now spend on such entertainment into a piano so that music is restored to your home; common, ordinary Christian music, much of which is very simple to play” (paging Kelsie Hartley, Amanda Faus, Cheryl Winstead, and Taylor D'Amico).