(Offtopic note involving religion: delete now if this topic is offensive)
I attended a Commencement on saturday.
Midwestern State at Wichita Falls makes no claims to national renown. It
sets out to meet a regional need, I once heard a faculty member say.
On this particular afternoon, I witnessed something rather unusual.
The senior student who was due to give the Invocation and Benediction was
somehow indisposed, and so the President explained, they would be given by
a last-minute stand-in.
The speaker, Mary King, was also a graduating student who spoke with a
stunningly simple and eloquent line. She noticeably trembled and her voice
quavered somewhat, so that I supposed she might have some degenerative
complaint of the kind one sometimes sees.
She asked for Divine forgiveness for the headlong pursuit of intellectual
avenues and, in short, there was no mistaking whose Grace was being invoked
upon whom.
When the ceremony had proceeded to the Benediction, this Shaking of Mary's
became more pronounced, but the Blessing was again stunningly delivered,
until at length, the spiritual force of this address, which was undoubtedly
uncomfortable to some fraction of the gathering, reduced Ms. King to her
knees where she was quite overcome.
My daughter joined us at the close, and when questioned, mentioned that
Mary was in fact a member of a "Charismatic" congregation.
The President was evidently distressed at the seeming faint, and had
called for an Ambulance. It became clear to me that the speaker had been
"visited by the
Spirit" and at the very least provided the majority (including me) who had
never witnessed the Charismatic form of worship, an educational experience.
It seemed somehow to represent a very fine upholding of the academic
tradition of free expression. I thanked Mary personally later.
(I suspect that the President of that college, Dr Rodriguez would not have
been as impressed by that performance, conforming as I suppose most must do
to the rather conservative image of their position...)