My daughter Kate graduated from Bowdoin College on Saturday. It was a good ceremony, as these things go: Penobscot Indian chiefs gave the invocation, five diverse and impressive people got honorary degrees, the State of Maine congratulated all in the person of former Governor McKernan, and there was no commencement speaker from outside, just two students who won contests. The best part was the processional that snaked around the quad, the students being led by the Chandler's Band and receiving the hoots and cheers from family and friends and then lining up along the walkway in a double row as the faculty walked to the stage between them.
Bowdoin is well grounded in Maine, offering many opportunities to volunteer for the Common Good. It also emphasizes a liberal arts education, although the obsession with sports and money is a little hard to reconcile. But it is also full of driven, ambitious people; let's pray that a little of the liberal and the Good and the Maine way of life has rubbed off in four years.
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