Her Majesty Queen Noor
Speech delivered
at the
National Cathedral School
June 7, 1998
Thank you, Mrs. Genster.
Good Afternoon, Class of 1998,
It is an honor and a privilege for me to accept your invitation to celebrate your success and to share with your families and friends their pride and joy and great expectations.
Many congratulations to all of you who have worked so hard for this day -- parents, teachers, staff and graduates.
Standing here facing the magnificent West Rose Window, I am overwhelmed with memories. As a young girl, I was enthralled by the music and song of Friday morning services, and enchanted by the stained glass wonders. Although my inspiration was more spiritual than theological, I particularly enjoyed my 7th grade "Cathedral Course," which I realize now probably partly inspired by later interest in architecture. I was the odd man out among my classmates for being a committed non-conformist, rather than subscribing to any specific creed.
Now, as religious studies at NCS have expanded to embrace many world faiths, I return, a believer in Islam. This glorious building, center of worship for a nation of so many different cultures, holds out a spiritual welcome for those of many faiths--or even for those who not yet found one.
It is marvelous and yet strange to return to a place that feels so familiar, but where so much as changed.
It seems at least several generations ago that I was a student here, too often summoned to the office of a truly ferocious headmistress who inspired even more terror in our parents than ourselves. That is a major change . . isn’t it?
Washington was an inspiring place to be then; it was President Kennedy's Camelot, when even a seventh-grader could march with Martin Luther King...and anything seemed possible...except, perhaps, my speaking to you from here today.
Those years profoundly shaped my social and political consciousness, and my choice of career and commitments in the decades since.
But I also remember morning assemblies I had to sit through here at NCS, and my own graduation ceremony, 2 schools later.
When I was asked to address you today, I remembered how older people lectured me then about the meaning of life, the future of the world and my responsibility to it.
I thought of my reaction to such pontificating, and I shuddered.
But today, here on the other side of the podium, I also have more sympathy for those long-ago speakers.
I have spent some sleepless jetlagged nights considering what a commencement speaker is supposed to say at such a momentous and pivotal moment in your lives--the culmination of the most critical years of study and personal development as you embark upon your next great odyssey.
We are supposed to send you off with inspiring yet entertaining words of wisdom and useful advice. We are supposed to be profound, but punchy, while we talk about the lessons of the past, the future and the changes that lie ahead, the world – our world and yours, the meaning of life, etc…
I know that I am expected to talk about me, my generation and the lessons of our journey through the freespirited, idealistic, activist 60s, the confusion of the 70s, the work-hard, play-hard, materialistic 80s and into the whirlwind wired 90s.
But after 12 years + of school the last thing you need is another history lesson.
Today, of all days, we should look forward, not back. And, yes, while my generation were the early catalysts for change, you are coping daily with changes we can only imagine.
So much for that. Then, I am supposed to tell you all about your generation, the choices you will face and the impact they will have on your future and ours. On the surface, our generations, yours and mine, share much more than we did with our parents. After all, we launched rock music, television, computers, cool hair and fashion.
But as much as we share, our paths are diverging in fundamental ways. In today's world, Even the rate of change is changing. Fashions, new products, cultural trends, life experiences and even, it seems, political ideas flash by with the speed of images on an MTV video.
My generation, by demanding to be heard, marching for what we believed in, pioneered the politics of youth and set in motion the engines of change that are now running at warp speed.
We hungered for change, and often it seemed it was not coming fast enough. Today, as change becomes a force unto itself, we seem almost to be standing still, while you are a blur, an enigma, because you are moving so fast.
An entire industry has grown up around trying to define the post-baby-boom generations in a bizarre alphabet of terms. First there was generation X, the pundits said: wired, rootless, cynical, apathetic. Now, apparently, there comes generation Y. The generations themselves are coming faster and faster, to the ever greater bewilderment of parents. The reproductive timeframe is no longer the measure.
There are times now when a generation seems to be measured in mere months, and lasts only until the update to the latest computer program.
More than anything else, you are the cyber generation with all that that entails. You have instant access to limitless information, but it is utterly unfiltered and bombards you in ever smaller bytes, resulting in patience and attention spans measured in nanoseconds, and in an off-beat way of perceiving reality, based on the impression that life can be rewound, fast-forwarded and randomly accessed.
Your cyber-connectivity provides a base of information, a set of skills, even a rate of thought, that make you unique. What President Kennedy said in 1963 is just as true today: "Man is still the most extraordinary computer of all." Your computers are simply tools; it is your own potential that is unlimited. Paradoxically, your challenge is to use technology with humanity.
But I wouldn't presume to lecture you. Just graduating from high school, you are already pioneering a new approach for the 21st century. No generation before yours has begun adult life with the same combination of training, technological ability and global awareness.
Omar bin al-Khattab, companion of the Prophet and one of Islam’s greatest caliphs, once said: "bring up your children for times that will not be your own," and those words have never been more appropriate. Your times are not mine, so I cannot begin to tell you about them...
Class of 1998, young Jordanians graduating from highschool this week dream like you and share similar hopes and fears for our world and their place in it. Like you, or because of the daily impact of political strife, insecurity and inequity in our region, perhaps even more than you, they harbor fears for our world and their place in it.
They dream of contributing to the realization of a more peaceful, equitable and sustainable world, in which tolerance and understanding will vanquish extremism and violence; a world that directs technology towards environmental preservation, not nuclear proliferation; a world in which precious resources are channeled into human development rather than weapons and warfare; a world in which men and women, young and old, reach across borders and work in partnership to promote human rights, and social, racial and gender equity, and eliminate poverty, hunger, and the scourge of drugs.
Living and studying here in the capital of the world’s remaining superpower, you are especially aware of how the role of the United States has been dramatically transformed by the geo-political changes since the end of the cold war. The mantle of American leadership and unilateral power brings with it vast new responsibilities, opportunities and dangers your government will act upon in your name.
Your choices will determine American policy towards the rest of the world in the new century. Let that policy be guided by true humanitarian priorities.
Whether as individuals or states, Jordanian or American or any of two hundred other nationalities, our separate efforts can meet and reinforce one another, as we work for parallel goals of human progress. The welfare of the human being must be the foremost priority of individual and collective actions regardless of economic or political interests. No one put it better than Robert F. Kennedy speaking in Capetown in 1966:
"Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."
This is the current that will help you navigate the sea of change on which you have set sail.
Now, I've covered my generation, and yours, and your national global responsibilities--that leaves me with what life is all about.
But simply, what I would like to share with you today is what I wish for my own 1998 graduate, my son who joins with you, and millions of your brothers and sisters around the world this summer on your journey into uncharted waters.
-Try always to hold on to the idealism, optimism, passion, energy and sense of opportunity of this moment in your lives. Don't let them be overwhelmed by the inevitable material pressures, expectations, and breathless pace of life. Take them out into the world with you, and combine them with your technical skills to fulfill your true potential.
- Try always to think outside and beyond yourselves. The golden rule or Confucius’ principle of reciprocity, is a primary guiding tenet of every faith and spiritual belief system -- in the words of the Prophet Mohammad -- "None of you is a believer until he wants for his brother what he wants for himself." Don’t let our technology-dominated world dehumanize your lives and priorities -- always focus on the human face.
- Try always to give your smile to others and most important to yourselves. There is no more potent force for well being and healing.
- Be agents of peace and solidarity in every way--but as your fellow students in the Middle East have learned so well, over the past frustrating years of stalemate in the Middle East peace process, you must be prepared for disappointment. But, always meet disappointment with renewed conviction, vigor, faith and determination.
My husband became king of Jordan at a younger age than you are now. He assumed extraordinary responsibilities usually associated only with age. But now, after guiding our country for 45 years, he retains an idealism normally attributed to youth, an idealism and faith that sustain his enduring quest for peace. Whatever the disappointments, his dreams will not be stilled. Don't let yours.
-- Finally, remember that you will never be alone--your family are your most valuable resource and refuge in life. We will always be with you.
We, watching you embark, must take heed of the Arab-American philosopher-poet, Khalil Gibran's, bittersweet and beautiful words:
"Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of life's longing for itself. They come through you but not from you, and though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts, for they have their own thoughts. You may house their bodies but not their souls, for their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit."
Class of 1998,
You dwell in the house of tomorrow. As you set off on your own odyssey, it is up to you to chart your course. We cannot follow where you are going, but our hearts and dreams go with you.
Congratulations, and God bless you all.