In praise of pomp, and circumstance.

I had the good fortune to attend my daughter-in-law's medical school commencement last weekend in San Antonio. It was a joyous affair for all.

While waiting for the faculty and students to process, my son Andrew and I were discussing the virtues of the ceremony's robes, hoods, caps, tassels, and the colors for all the above. Our commencement, the University of Texas, San Antonio, School of Medicine was filled with students wearing green, the color of the medical sciences.

The commencement program made note of the tradition:

"The contemporary tradition of wearing academic regalia for university ceremonies dates to the eleventh and twelfth centuries when the great European universities were being established."

So here we are 1000 years later carrying on a tradition of medieval Europe. In the Middle Ages the dignity of a high office, such as a king at court, or a marching army, or a royal wedding, required a display of respect, a pomp-ous display, for much the same reason that we do not attend our graduation ceremonies in jeans and a t-shirt. Some occasions, some offices, are special.

Shakespeare, in Othello, coined the oft-repeated phrase that is the title of this post:

O farewell,
Farewell the neighing steed, and the shrill trump,
The spirit-stirring drum, th' ear-piercing fife;
The royal banner, and all quality,
Pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war!

So I say bring on the pride, pomp and circumstance. Not just for the aesthetics, but because ceremony is something. Because man is more than matter, he is enlivened by the breath of God, and because our ceremonies on earth reflect, if imperfectly, the order of heaven.

Congratulations to the proud graduates, especially Elizabeth.

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In-N-Out Burger Video. Allen, Texas.

In case you thought I was kidding about the lines.

And is there something wrong with us? We'll wait in line for hours for a hamburger?

I think the answer is, yes, there is something wrong with us.

Sent to me via Facebook.



More In N Out posts:

in-n-out-burger-report-may-15-2011

in-n-out-burger-according-to-d-magazine

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The Lucky Strike fiasco.

I'll say this for the public relations firm that handled the Lucky Strike pre-open: they gotta bunch of folks out there.

And maybe everybody had a good time. If I had the patience of Job I might have too. But I don't. And I wouldn't say anything except for the fact that their pre-open invitation should have said that everyone in Fort Worth looking for a free Miller-Lite was invited.

When I arrived I did a quick in-line body count, stopped at 75, and said the hell with it.

Gutter-ball. That's the way I see it.

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In-N-Out Burger Report. May 15, 2011

FRISCO, TX.

This report just in from a friend of mine (a Californian, of course) who drove to the newly opened In-N-Out Burger in Frisco.

We drove to In-N-Out today but didn't eat there: the lines were STILL insanely long -- the guy at the drive-thru told me it was a 3 hour wait, and there were a good 75 people out the door in line to walk in. This was the case at BOTH locations. Insane. 

That's it folks. I guess you could say it's a Can't-Get-In-N-Out Burger right now. (Sorry couldn't help myself.)

Stay tuned!

(Thanks, Travis)

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St. Thomas on Friendship

"First of all, among all worldly things there is nothing which seems worthy to be preferred to friendship. Friendship unites good men and preserves and promotes virtue.

Friendship is needed by all men in whatsoever occupations they engage. In prosperity it does not thrust itself unwanted upon us, nor does it desert us in adversity.

It is what brings with it the greatest delight, to such an extent that all that pleases is changed to weariness when friends are absent, and all difficult things are made easy and as nothing by love."

St Thomas Aquinas.

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