“The Veritas awards ceremony is only one hour long, students dress in their formal uniforms, and it is the very last thing which happens in the school year. When I say “the very last thing,” I mean the academic dean prays at the end of the awards ceremony and then says, “Alright, have a great summer!” After that, there’s no lockers to clean, no textbooks to return, no nothing. There’s a loud cheer and everyone adjourns to the quad to say their goodbyes. In this, our awards ceremony banks on the importance which every real beginning and every real end has. Almost all holy days (Christian, pagan, secular) mark the beginning of something or the end of it. When an awards ceremony is the actual factual last thing which happens in the school year, everything which happens during the ceremony has greater heft. The ceremony is the formal operation by which the year is closed out. When the ceremony is held with three days of school left, the actual end of the year is anticlimactic. Students depart a math exam one by one, mill around the hallway a moment, say, “I guess that’s it,” and then walk home or wait to get picked up. The school year really ought to end on a moment where everyone assembled together. It ought to end with honor given, honor received, prayer, and joy.”
-my latest for CiRCE
There are still faint glimmers of civilization left in this barbaric slaughterhouse that was once known as humanity. 