I graduated from college today. I earned my Bachelor’s Degree. A Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography. Yep. The pomp, the circumstance…. the valedictorian’s speech… all took place this morning at 11, west coast time. The celebrations, the tossing of the caps, tassels everywhere. Problem is….my little cap and gown hung on a rack in the North Hall of Cow Palace (….real name of the place) in Daly City, California…. all without me in it.

A little underwhelming I’ll tell you. My diploma came a couple of months ago, in a large white cardboard envelope. I was all by myself when I opened it. No trumpets played. No ticker tape fell. No dang cake and ice-cream.

So what did five years of blood, sweat, and fears get me?

Well, for one, the diploma IS KINDA’ neat…. gold lettering and all. They even spelled my name right.

I guess another thing is…. and I don’t know if this came from my education…. or other life lessons….

…. but about 25 years ago I was a bartender. I met one of my very good friends while working in that bar. We use to hang out and talk about life philosophies, and art, and the dimension of time. She had a photo on her freshly scrubbed wooden kitchen table… in an old black frame. It was an image of a leaf in a basket that she had taken and developed herself.

Hard as I tried back then…..I didn’t get it.

Now I get it.

The extraordinary Greek Philosopher Socrates once said… “As for me, all I know is that I know nothing.”

…. and that is what I learned in college.