The featured speaker at Clark College's commencement last night was the fiction writer, poet, film-maker, comedian, and raconteur extraordinaire Sherman Alexie. He spoke for about 20 minutes, inspiring our students with his message of the importance of education. He was one of the better speakers I've heard at commencement--he was quite funny and therefore entertaining, but the undercurrents of dead seriousness were very apparent. He spoke candidly of his reservation upbringing (including his infant hydrocephaly), his less than ideal rez education, his own and others' alcoholism, and his journey toward a higher education that, literally, saved his life. In the end, the students and faculty gave him a well-deserved standing ovation and, I must confess, I got a little misty. I think it was his special recognition of those students who were the first to go to college and attain a degree--he reached out to those people, congratulating them directly. I thought of my wife Kathleen's educational journey from rural eastern Washington schools (some of them probably little better than Alexie's) to Northwestern University's School of Law, a first rate program that consistently ranks in the top 12. Kathleen was the first in her family to earn a college degree.
I spoke very quickly with Sherman Alexie after the commencement. I shook his hand and told him, "We had the same poetry teacher at WSU." He turned to me and said, "You mean Alex? When were you there?" "I graduated in '86." "Just prior to me!" But then I had to move along with the crowd, so our conversation was cut short. But as a matter of fact, Alexie and I have had many a near miss in the past. Although I'd never seen him read (and he read a lot in and around Spokane between the years '90-'97), I would see him coccasionally at Auntie's Bookstore or passing on the street, or at a coffee shop; we had mutual friends and acquaintances--such as the "Alex" from above (Alex Kuo); but we never managed to meet for real. He had even worked at the same company that Kathleen had--Ambassador Programs International--although he left not long before she was hired. Maybe I'll meet him again one of these days and have a decent chat with him.
Here's a link to Sherman Alexie's fun website (check out his marvelous lists, such as "stuff i like"): http://www.fallsapart.com/
And here's a link to Alex Kuo's site which I just discovered and am in need of exploring: http://www.alexkuo.org/
And here's two of my favorite people: Jacque Pollard and Ian Finley. This is last Christmas (or shortly thereafter), and Ian has just opened "The Dangerous Book for Boys", given to him by Jacque and her husband Barry.
So long,
JBF
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