In Lumine: The President’s Blog

The following is a transcript of Dr. Carey’s commencement address to the Class of 2017. Science tells us that there is a universe beyond what our senses experience; that cats and cattle and so many others with whom we share the planet can see and hear and feel things that we never know are even there. The arts, humanities, and human sciences remind us that what is true of science is true also of our relations with each other. Against all the obvious facts, we know that there is more to us—call it self, or soul, or heart, or wish—than the lives we lead or the ways we act awake and asleep. And yet most of the time, most of us live as if our limits are the true limits of the world and not the accidents of our fragile bodies. The literary critic Hugh Kenner said it this way: “What you are taking for granted is always more important than whatever you have your mind fixed on.” So at this moment, when you leave and we reluctantly let go, my charge is this: pay attention to what you can see with all the skill you have learned. Concentrate on what needs to be done and do it with the furious intellect and singular intensity you have displayed in your time here at Transylvania. But take the time to pay attention to all the things you cannot see. More than

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The following is a transcript of Dr. Carey’s remarks to the 2017 Martin Luther King Jr. Unity Breakfast in Lexington, Ky. Thank you Mr. Jackson, Chairman Everett, and the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity for this invitation. I am honored to be here. I have been asked to reflect on Dr. King as a spiritual leader. Initially, as a philosopher and person of faith, I welcomed the opportunity. But as I began to review Dr. King’s life and work, I found myself unexpectedly uneasy. I had studied Dr. King in the past, and I thought a brief review would be enough to clarify what I wanted to say. I quickly discovered, however, that Dr. King’s writings do not let us rest contentedly on how much we know, or how bravely we fought, or how sincerely we have embraced his message. And very soon, my smug familiarity dissolved into discomforting introspection. I found my disorientation particularly unexpected and unsettling for several reasons. First, I was forcefully reminded that, if we are paying attention, if we are serious about our lives, an encounter with Dr. King will shake us to our bones. If we are willing to pay attention, his work will remind us of how necessary work is never easy, of how short we often fall, and, if we are paying attention, of how staying the difficult path is our only choice.

The following is a transcript of Dr. Carey’s speech to the Transylvania Class of 2020 during its induction ceremony Aug. 13, 2016. Good morning. I am delighted to welcome all of you, parents and students of the class of 2020, to the beginning of this year’s August Term. I want to congratulate you on your choice of Transylvania. For 237 years, we have been educating students to make their mark on the world. Today, with pride, we continue that tradition with you. We also want to give you a bit of a head start. You are here a few weeks before the upper classes arrive so you can become familiar with where things are and with the college staff who will matter to you; you will know the best times and places to find late night food and which shortcuts actually shorten journeys. And you will have a good sense of your professors’ expectations before you start a full schedule of classes in September. Still, if I were to hazard a guess, I would say that all of you, but especially we parents, are feeling more than a bit of anxiety. I will drop my second daughter off at college in a couple of weeks, and while I am supposed to be an “old hand” at the “letting go” thing, I am still full of anxiety and some sadness. I want her to learn the pleasure, the freedom, and responsibility

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The following is a transcript of Dr. Carey’s address to the 2016 class of the Henry Clay Center for Statesmanship. Good evening. My name is Seamus Carey, and I am the president of Transylvania University. You’ve probably already heard some of the history of this institution. Suffice it to say that when you stand on the steps of Old Morrison, it is quite probable that Henry Clay stood in the same spot with some relief in 1834 when the building was finally completed, under his direction. In fact, he may have felt some personal responsibility to oversee the construction of that building, since it was the servant of his young cousin Cassius Clay, then a student at Transylvania, who had fallen asleep while “blacking [Cassius’s] boots” in the original college building across the street in Gratz Park, allowing the candle lighting his work to ignite the entire structure. I want to thank the Henry Clay Center for giving me the last word this evening, though perhaps you should reserve judgment on that decision until after I finish. As you may have noticed, we academics have little capacity for recognizing “too much talk.” You have already listened to a lot of words, and I will try not to increase too much the buzzing in your heads. Still, this congress is an important event at an important time in your lives and in our nation’s history, and I want to take a

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The following originally appeared in The Huffington Post. Each year at this time, high school seniors and their families wait for acceptance letters from colleges and then agonize over the choice of where to go. This decision-making process has become a time of deep anxiety for many families. In some circles, this anxiety is generated by the emphasis that has been put on the prestige of the school one attends. In other circles, families fret over the cost of higher education and fear that their child will be overwhelmed by loans. For still other families, there is the fear that their child will struggle to find rewarding work at a reasonable wage. This year, the decision-making season is amplified by two presidential primaries. These political races indicate a widespread sense of alienation among the electorate. Non-traditional candidates such as Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump could not be further apart on many issues, yet their success in attracting voters thus far seems to derive from an almost universal frustration and anger in both parties with their respective political establishment.