Senior Send-Off Ceremony

Keynote Address by Michael D’Aleo

Michael D’Aleo lectures nationally and internationally on the topics of science, education and environmental issues and is a founding member of the Saratoga Experiential Natural Science Research Institute (SENSRI) in Keene Valley, New York as the Director of Research. He was a co-founder of the high school at the Waldorf School of Saratoga Springs where he taught physical science and astronomy. Mr. D’Aleo is also an instructor of Waldorf School physical science teachers at The Center for Anthroposophy in Wilton New Hampshire as well as a guest teacher at various teacher training institutions and Waldorf Schools throughout the world.  He is the cofounder of, and leads the successful sixth, seventh and eighth grade science teacher training, Teaching Sensible Science.

Here is his speech:

So, thank you very much for that. When I called in, Mr. Crimy said to me, “so have you ever done anything like this before?” Well, I can say, not really. So, I told a few people, “Hey, I’ve been asked to give the graduation talk at the Lake Champlain Waldorf School and some people said, “they’re having a graduation? How’s that going to work?” And I said, “Well, I think if you imagine drive-in movie meets car show meets graduation, that might give you a little bit of a picture of what I’m going to be experiencing.

And my hat is off and I commend all of you on the amazing flexibility, creativity, and life that you have shown to take the present conditions and make something that I will never forget and I’m sure you will never forget.

But we live in a very interesting time. The last time we met, each one of you was a little box about this big on my computer screen for three weeks. Here I was trying to develop this capacity in you to see the world through your own eyes while each of us is staring at a computer screen.

But these are really interesting times we live in and to give you one of the most bizarre experiences I had just last week: I had to re-pin an ATM card and I’ve been trying this for three weeks. Do you know how hard it is to simply re-pin an ATM card remotely? So finally, they let me into the bank, I had to wear a mask, the bank has been closed but the employees are inside. I have my mask on, they unlock the door, they lock the door, and then the banker says to me, “when was the last time you were in a bank with a mask on, with the door locked, inside. And, if you think about it, this is something that if you had told somebody of this 4-5 months ago, they would’ve said you’re crazy.

But I don’t want you to simply see these conditions as challenges because the unusual fact is I’m only here today and able to speak at your graduation because of the coronavirus. Because on my schedule I’m, ironically enough, to be flying back from Guangzhou, China today.

So, it’s interesting how the change in conditions, that which is the obstacle in our life, actually becomes that which moves us forward, which moves us into new possibilities, and into seeing new aspects of the world.

Now, one of the key things that was just beautiful – I know Ron is with us remotely – his poem really has this gift of the fact that you must figure things out for yourself. And it’s a little bit on this theme that I wanted to speak to you today. Most of us spend our time with our friends, with our family, with people who think the most like us. But I’d like to give you a little piece of advice: live in the tension of those who don’t think like you at all. I’ve been gifted in my life with siblings that have gone in very different directions that have very different religious beliefs, political beliefs.

I’ve had friends of every possible persuasion and I’ve met people around the world who are all coming from such a different place. And the key becomes not simply finding what’s in common but live in the tension with what they say that makes you the most uncomfortable. Because if they’re truly speaking out of their deepest experience and their heart, those are some of the conditions that create the possibility for each of us to become larger than we ever imagined before.

At this time, it’s so easy for people to try to put us in one group of the other. And we could name all the groups – it’s not so important. It’s also become customary to be so polite to everyone, to be kind to everyone, to treat each person with respect. But I think that next boundary, that next edge, it’s to actually take interest in what’s important to them but seems less important to us at first and live in that uncomfortability. I just humbly share with you what I have learned from that experience.

If someone was to say, “well, who are you?” – and this happens to me on an airplane a lot – well, what do you do? Well, that’s kind of a hard question to answer. I kind of teach. I work with teachers. “Well, what kind of school do you teach in?” That’s a hard question to answer. “Well, what’s important to you? You’re from America.” Well, maybe I’m not the typical American.

What I have found over time is, I’m no longer interested in answering the question: “This is who I am.” But I’ve become more interested in the question: “what do I choose to become?” And I’m sharing this with you because that quality I recognized through a computer screen talking to you for 3 weeks. It was this gift; I do remember this day where I was a substitute teacher for a day and then in October, we had this block together person to person, and then we went to a screen and now we’re in this new situation together again. Get used to it. Because it’s my deepest, deepest, belief that this constant change of conditions is what will create the possibility for each of us to become larger than we ever could have imagined. Larger than we ever could’ve imagined.

I may have told you this, but I remind you of this, toward the end of my life I was fortunate enough that I met Alan Ginsburg. He was studying Buddhism with the same teacher that I was and sometimes in the evenings when we’d be together for a week, somebody would ask Alan, “read some of your poetry and, you know, share a little about your life.” He said one of the most interesting things that still lives with me twenty some odd years later. He said, “it’s easy in life to be radical and changing when you’re in your twenties. The key to life is to be as radical and changing in your sixties. And I assure you, having met Alan Ginsburg who’s a person known for that in his early life, the maturity and subtlety, and the vulnerability that he still expressed toward the very end of his life was a gift to behold.

So, what I’d like to leave you with is that gift, that possibility that you’ve graduated in conditions that are unusual. This can become the seed for the whole life that leads to more than any of us could’ve imagined. And remember the key is always: what is experienced through yourself that is true beyond yourself. What is it is that you have experienced through yourself that is true beyond yourself?

I’d like to end with a poem that I wrote a few years ago. Somehow this just came to me that this is the right piece for you. So, I congratulate all of you, wish you the best, and will end with the poem so I don’t have to say anything else to you. But I can tell you, I will never forget this graduation and I will never forget each of you and I can still see myself, sitting in my little corner, on my computer, looking forward to sharing experiences with you, even through a little screen.

The Day Will Come
The day will come when the fear of being wrong is overcome with the desire to know what is.
When the agreement of others is less needed than becoming resonant with what is new.
When the words you utter are yours and no longer the phrases of no one.
When that day comes, the truthful experience of the phenomena of the world will fill you with the certainty you’ve always longed for.
The answers will not be fixed, the means for finding them will be your new home.
The answers will not be fixed, but the means for finding them will become your new home.
The day will come.