To all,

Donna and I recently had the honor of attending the graduation ceremony of the University of Davis Law School, Davis, California. We watched nine young, bright kids graduate with an environmental law degree on Friday evening and on Saturday evening watched 180 successful graduates cross the stage. Amanda Saunders, our youngest son’s girlfriend and most significant partner in life, was one of the nine and one of the one hundred eighty.

The event was a true lesson and testament to the cause of diversity. In fact a more diverse group could not have existed–at least that was my take. All nations, races, religions and social status were present in Davis on both evenings. This includes the very diverse professional management of Davis University; the management professionals of the Davis Law program; the teaching staff; and all levels of employees and staff in-between. And, as one could well imagine, the audience was equally as diverse.

Quite an accomplishment for the individual introducing the graduates to the crowd to simply pronounce the names of each graduate correctly. I am sure diligent preparation preceded this lady stepping to the microphone.

The speakers were all excellent, a most welcome part of both ceremonies. As many know from attending multiple graduation ceremonies in life, this is not always the case. The African American student selected to speak on behalf of the graduates talked about the concept of “privilege”. She felt she was quite privileged to be part of this group and to be able to attend such a prestigious university. I thought her speech was perfect. A great message to those on the stage and to those in the audience.

I think too often we do not recognize or appreciate the privileges we have in life. Not only do we take the little things in life for granted, we too often take the major events of our life for granted as well. I wish I had a copy of this young ladies speech as I would publish it word for word on my PEOPLE website. It also was quite gratifying to me to feel that not one person in this Performing Arts Center recognized that this speaker was of a race and culture different than our own. We were all different; there was no one prevailing race and culture in this room. She was not African-American; she was a proud graduate of the University of Davis School of Law and she was chosen to speak for her fellow graduates.

Life is a privilege; life in this country with the freedoms we enjoy enhances greatly this privilege. When you see the special privilege of higher education being offered and successfully completed by such a large and racially diverse group in such a racially and socially diverse setting, it makes one think of the many other privileges we enjoy in life.

I decided I wanted to think on this concept of privilege a bit more so while flying high in the sky on the way home, I wrote the following thoughts. I wanted to share this with everyone with the simple request that we all take a step back in life and consider the many privileges we have in our life. In doing so let us think of the special people in our life that play a prominent role in allowing us the privileges we enjoy.

“It is not complicated; we are all just PEOPLE?”

PRIVILEGE

To live in a nation that promotes and respects diversity is a privilege; regardless of the existing conditions in which we live

To learn an alphabet that evolves into a language that allows us to speak clearly and freely is a privilege; regardless of which language, or how many languages, we are chosen to speak

To educate ourselves; constantly seeking knowledge; knowingly searching for the unknown is a privilege; regardless of what level of education we attain or the amount of knowledge we retain

To walk our streets and pathways with our hands extended to those in need is a privilege; regardless of the condition of the street or the race or religion of the neighbor in need

With each new rising sun and each new falling rain drop and each rapid passing of each moment in our lives we are given the gift of privilege; the gift of freedom–freedom to learn; freedom to grow; freedom to make a difference in our world. The passion as to how and when we open this gift and the enthusiasm and energy we invest in spending this gift is quite simply our individual choice to make.

Do we open our arms, our minds and our hearts and embrace this gift of privilege or do we sit in silence and watch it wither and slowly disappear with each setting sun?

Each of us has the privilege of one life to spend; we shall pass this way with this unique set of given conditions only once.

Yesterday may be gone but today is not too late to think of all of our tomorrows as a privilege.

Ron