The spring semester has ended. Graduations are commencing. Another group of seniors is leaving us to make their lives in the world beyond campus. I can’t believe it is already time for them to go. We work with them in class and try to impart different types of knowledge and certain habits of thinking.

Yet I find that I want to share with them some of the things I have learned about life, as opposed to politics (which is my academic subject), before they leave. Occasionally, I have the chance to talk with some of them about how things look to me at midlife. These are the thoughts I offered to a gathering of them this year.