HOW to from here..?

When the topic of this graduation address came up in our first academic meeting of the year, my initial response was “I don’t know if I can speak this year” - I had said this quite impulsively, as a knee-jerk reaction rather than as a premeditated consideration. 

This instinctual discomfort of speaking runs deeper than the superficial reason - not having spoken in front of such a large live audience in 2 years. The discomfort of speaking sits for me in the complete uncertainty of what to say. How does one inspire and send graduates off into a world, when one really doesn’t know what that world will look like in the future? 

I kept coming back to the question, ‘where to from here?’ What does one say at what is presumably the tail end of a global pandemic? what does one say amidst a nightmarish state of global unrest and uncertainty? What does one say when the overlap of the economic aftereffects of these two devastating synchronicities send shivers up and down one’s spine?

Well, I suppose one starts with the easy part. One starts with the bit that is certain. In this instance what I am certain of, above all else, is the respect and admiration I have for each and every one of our graduates. Young, dedicated individuals who have proved their resilience and agility by completing their rigorous degrees in what was undoubtedly the most trying times in the history of our institution. You had barely settled into your second year at the Creative Academy when the pandemic struck and had to shift and redirect with us, as we figured out the best ways of guiding your learning under lockdown conditions. Despite the fact that I so desperately wish that we could have been together in a room with each other throughout this process, I also know that what you have achieved in the last two years is more than merely completing your degree. The life skills and lessons you have gained in independent work and self-motivation are priceless, and I am so excited to see how these skills will empower you to do incredible things in your careers. You signed up for a degree, but you leave not only with a degree but also with experientially acquired superpowers in self-management and proper adulting…this bodes very well for your future.

This part is easy to speak to, because these are all certainties that I know for a fact, without any doubt. What is more challenging is returning to the question, where to from here? How do we proceed from these knowns into the unknowns lying ahead? 

This question brought me to the task of navigation. But not navigation as we know it today - which has become codified with a type of mathematical certainty - satellites beeping to pinpoint locations with distinct coordinates determined with the utmost exactitude. No, the navigational instruments I am interested in are more fluid than this - more akin to the Mattang stick-charts used by Marshall Islanders (up to the mid-20th century) to map out swelling and receding waves as they create diffraction patterns due to the meeting of currents or the collision of ocean water with landmass, coral formation, rocks and wind.  

These stick charts were created by drawing on the accumulated experiential knowledge of generations of sailors that were abstracted into a generalised system for the interfacing of land, sea and wind. These abstract ‘maps’ were explicitly used to train navigators who would memorise these diffraction patterns for different locations, and learn to match them with the swell they could feel with their own bodies while lying outstretched on the bottom of the boat. This system of navigation or mapping thus finds its meaning in the meeting point between inherited and felt experience. 

When looking at this map of the Marshall Islands, it becomes clear why the dynamism of water was used as the most concrete anchor point in this system of navigation. In an environment where the movement of water far outweighs the fixity of land - one has to find your certainty in the never-static motion of one's waterous surrounds. 

When returning to the question of where to from here - I find these mattang stick charts as a useful symbol for effectively navigating constant change. They help me understand that my role here today should not be to advise you on the supposed fixed and direct pathways for your road after graduation. When using them as a tool to think-with, these stick charts make clear that our navigational strategy might have more meaning when shifting our emphasis from fixed, predetermined destinations to a focus instead on the fostering of a sensitive attunement to fluctuating change.  

With this image in mind, navigating one's path changes from a step-by-step route from one fixed point to another to a dynamic and responsive journey guided not by predetermined direction or destination but by the embodiment of underlying principles that account for change. When facing our challenging question we have thus been mistaken to search for the where-to’s and should instead rephrase by asking how to from here? 

For quantum physicist Karen Barad (I paraphrase) 

The world and its possibilities for becoming are remade with each moment. If we hold on to the belief that the world is made of individual [predetermined] entities, it is hard to see how even our best, most well-intentioned calculations for right action can avoid tearing holes in the delicate tissue-structure of entanglements that the lifeblood of the world runs through. 

In other words, when we see the universe as fixed in place, where in actual fact it is fluid, like waves diffracting, we break down potential connections and opportunities for meaningful change. 

Barad continues:   

Intra-acting (and take note that they speak here of intra-acting, not interacting. Whereas interacting suggests acting on the universe as if from a static location outside, INTRA-acting emphasises that one is merely a participant co-acting from within the messy and fluid continuous unfolding of the universe.) responsibly as part of the world means taking account of the [dynamic] entangled phenomena that are intrinsic to the world’s vitality AND being [actively] responsive to the [unknown] possibilities that might help us flourish. Meeting each moment, being alive to the possibilities of becoming, is an ethical call, an invitation that is written into the very matter of all being and becoming. We need to meet the universe halfway, to take responsibility for the role that we play in the world’s [continuous and] differential becoming. 

When considering HOW TO from here, I urge you to consider which principles you will choose to guide you as you continue to grow and develop not despite of the universe and all the confusion it brings, but as part of that very process.  

In order to do so, it is essential to take the time to notice and attune to the experientially felt guiding system that you have developed in the last few years. Remind yourself that you have forged the skills required to deal with change and the unexpected. Make a list of the lessons you’ve learned during the hardest times, because these are the lessons that might guide you during the most uncertain moments. 

Surround yourself with generous elders who can share their own lived experiences of navigating challenges. Keep yourself open to always continue learning. Welcome change with a radical sense of hospitality that sees potential in the turning of the tides, rather than a threat. 

Whereas goal-setting is useful in figuring out initial sketches for a long-term plan, mapping out one’s guiding principles is even more valuable in locating oneself meaningfully along one's journey.  Be clear about what matters to you and fill your path with the rich meaning spilling out from those matters. And when you feel lost, don’t be surprised. Lost is a rest-stop that often returns. When you reach this place, take a breath and revel in its open-endedness, its shapeless potentiality and remember that you don’t need a map filled with fixed locations in order to make your next steps. All you need are a few twigs that hint at direction by bringing you back to the guiding principles that you know and feel within your bones. 

Be clear about what matters to you and fill your path with the rich meaning spilling out from those matters and when you find places of meaningful discovery, please remember where you came from and come back to us to share some stories of your travels. 

Even though you are graduating from the Creative Academy today, we hope to remain part of your journey as you keep travelling to new and exciting places. 

Congratulations to each and every one of you!