graduation speech
Graduation 2005
Speech by John Marcantonio
My gut response to our newly certified harpists this afternoon is not "Congratulations!" but rather, "How dare you?!"
How dare you wander through our units and patients' rooms, lacking any referral or consult, offering no reimbursable services, and utilizing no clinical competencies!
How dare you silently approach these private sacred moments of mystery, in which life awakens, struggles or regrets, begs why or wonders if, wanes or ends!
How dare you approach these mysteries armed only with wood and strings, imparting nothing more than good vibrations!
How dare you?
You dare because your good vibrations are more powerful than any pet sounds or surfing music. Your good vibrations nursed a noted manic-depressive named Saul. Your good vibrations produced original oldies-but-goodies that we now call the Psalms. Your good vibrations graced the courts and temples of countless royalty of the ancient east and Europe. Your good vibrations recently received international acclaim through the Blair L. Sadler award. Your good vibrations are now being subjected to IRB-approved clinical research at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital at Rahway. More importantly, your good vibrations have generated moments of personal healing and self-enhancement.
You dare because your certification marks a proficiency for some and mastery for others, in musical improvisation - a skill that escapes many classically trained musicians. After 70 to 120 hours of internship, you know how to noodle! J.S. Bach would be proud!
You dare because you have done the more difficult inner work, exploring your own souls, especially your struggles, dreams, losses and pain. Your recent self-discoveries fine tunes your good vibrations, eliminates the projection of your own pain or anxiety, removes the distortion of any allusions of grandeur or heroism.
You dare approach because you have been taught well by a master teacher, a genuine artist, one of those rare persons who combines being and doing, one who IS what she DOES. You have been empowered by one who will only hand on what has been truly tested over thousands of hours, with close to a million patients, within various healthcare settings, in several states. You have been inspired by one who is more devoted to patient outcomes than to self-promotion, more devoted to quality control than to program expansion.
So congratulations and dare, you go!! Go silently with your good vibrations, fined tuned by your inner work, guided by the lessons of your master. Dare to approach the private sacred moments of life and death, the personal mountains of hope and despair, the burning bushes of pain and love. Without words, remind us busy suits and uniform scrubs that healing is as much an art as it is a science, and that we need to practice and excel at both. For as we must probe, you may deeply touch; as we must prescribe, you may propose; as we instruct, you engage; as we refer, you relieve. Remind us healthcare professionals that our daily work, like none other, is a vocation, a challenge to humbly approach the mysteries of human suffering and death, and confidently practice the wonders of healing.
John Marcantonio is the Community Outreach Coordinator at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital at Rahway, NJ.