The Country Club of the South Puts On a Fine Commencement. How George W. Bush might have a future as a commencement speaker. Blogging from cruise!

Scott, Hank and Lorelai before the LONG sit... Scott, Hank and the happy graduate...

Legare is now a college graduate, cum laude with a double major in English and Political Science and is well on his way to making the mental transition from a Paladin to a Tarheel. His university hosted the President as its commencement speaker. Not a fan…I believe you know that already…BUT…I’ll give him this…his speechwriter did a wonderful job and the address was delivered well indeed. The ol’ boy said all the things parents want their children to hear as they prepare to fly a little further from the nest. It was interesting to watch the crowd. There were about 30 faculty members who were excused from attending and about 14 who removed their regalia during the approximately 20 minute speech and stood on the back faculty row in “We Object” shirts. There were also a small number of protesters as the motorcade made its way through town from the airport to campus but it was all very peaceful. Folks did what they had to do but they did it quietly and without disrespect to the Class of 2008. Now that it is all said and done, my only real complaint is that we had to be there two and a half hours early, which made for quite a few achy backs from the hard bleachers since the nearly three hour graduation had us sitting for a grand total of five and a half hours. Hank, Lorelai, good old Scott who attending both of our graduation events over the weekend (he was a real trooper) and I sat and sat and SAT, but the music was glorious, the words inspiring, and Hank figures that there was no less that a $7,000,000.00 investment sitting on that football field accepting diplomas. When Legare was baptized back when he was about eight years old, the pastor said, “This is Legare, my brother in Christ. He is going to do great things in this world.” It was a little unusual for him to say all of that as he usually just said, in a baptizing situation, “This is John (or Jane, or Sue, or Mike), my brother/sister in Christ” and would leave it at that. The “he is going to do great things in this world” was special, as is our smart, witty, and clever son. There is no doubt that he will indeed do great things in this world.

We arrived at Legare’s apartment early Sunday morning, packed him up and moved him out, making the three hour drive back to the lowcountry as fast as we could. After unloading we (Hank, Lor, and I) repacked and jumped back in the car to head as far as Brunswick to spend the night on our way to board a cruise in Port Canaveral on Monday morning. I’m blogging from the balcony of our stateroom as we make our way through beautiful blue waters toward the Bahamas. Lor, three friends and six parents are having a much needed vacation from the hustle and bustle of graduation activity. WE need it more than the others since we had TWO graduations. (If you haven’t figured it out by now, my situation is always the best/worse/happiest/most serious/funniest (pick one) because it’s all about ME).

I think I need a nap before lunch….final note on commencement speakers. One of our congressmen was the speaker at Lor’s graduation the other night…we’ll call him Jack Black (if you were there you’ll have to admit that giving him that name is FUNNNEEEE) and he was a TERRIBLE TERRIBLE speaker. When Legare was in Washington a couple of years ago doing an internship, he visited Congressman Black’s office. It was a requirement of the program that he interview several politicians from our state. He had appointments, but on three separate occasions when he arrived, he was told that Jack Black was unavailable. Legare, losing patience, went back to the office of the congresswoman for whom he was working and was advised to call Black’s office to complain as a constituent and the son of constituents. He did so and was given an apology and new appointment. It all worked out and he met with JB for 15 minutes or so very unimpressive minutes, took the obligatory photograph together and went on his way. A few weeks after he arrived back home from his two months in DC, he received an envelope from Congressman Black’s office which contained a lovely photograph of Black and some nice middle-aged woman who is unknown to any of us. I guess she has our photograph of Legare. Having said all of that (I don’t think anybody should be offended as every word is true), I know the congressman’s two sisters…they are delightful ladies and I have no doubt that JB is a sweet old guy…he just doesn’t need to accept invitations to speak at graduations (EVER) and should work on the efficiency of his office staff. Time for that nap...