Title: “Life of the Mind”

Hello Georgetown ’20 Graduates, This message is not the type you hear at graduation (sursum ad summum) or, in this year, “hang in there, kid.” You will do them both on your own. Rather, I recommend that you take some time to sit in a quiet place and think about the life of your mind. Think about those moments at Georgetown when you had a chance to get a glimpse of the workings of the mind of a scholar. Maybe it was when you saw how a professor answered a question and pondered while getting to the answer. Maybe it was when a scientist organized the data and recalled earlier research and concluded that we don’t know yet – we need to do more. Maybe you saw careful work lead to real insight, quietly, and wondered, “How did that brain get there?” I have often thought that the insight I gained at Georgetown into how true scholars think was an extraordinary gift. Naturally, learning the ideas and facts you need to know is very important, but they came from somewhere. It is a matter of wonder. In fact, it is amazing. It will make you glad that you had a chance to learn from a community of scholars at Georgetown. In the future, it will help you distinguish between wisdom and its absence in your life.