From Harvard's 2010 Phi Beta Kappa ceremony—
Think of all the history you’ve read. It started somewhere.
It started at absolute zero, is what you thought.
Just because you couldn’t know what came before.
But imagine: something did.
"To help the graduates find rightness, two addresses are at the heart of the exercises ceremony.
One is by a poet, who reads a work written for the occasion.
The other is by an 'orator,' a guest invited to offer timely discourse."
From this morning's New York Times—
Related material—
Immediately following Inspector Pine in this morning's Times obituary list
is Virginia B. Smith, a former president of Vassar College. Smith died at 87 on August 27.
From her obituary—
Ms. Smith is survived by her partner of 57 years, Florence Oaks.