![\"Roderick](\"http:\/\/www.yorku.ca\/yfile\/photos\/20110615\/macdonald2.jpg\")
Left: Roderick Macdonald<\/strong><\/p>\nPrior to his performance, which garnered Macdonald a standing ovation from graduands, the two-time York graduate began his address with the easy familiarity of a folk singer. In effect, he delivered a master class on the meaning of life,\u00a0urging graduates to\u00a0retain their youthful sense of wonderment, eschew acclaim\u00a0and\u00a0remember what is really important.<\/p>\n
He\u00a0asked them to consider the questions,\u00a0\u201cwhat do I want to do when I grow up?\u201d and \"what do I want to be when I grow up?\" Both questions have merit, he said, because whatever one's\u00a0chronological age, everyone can\u00a0resist the sirens of a conventional life.\u00a0\"Youth is a precious moment of idealism, of discovery and of challenging orthodoxies,\" he said. \"This afternoon, as you reflect upon your futures, I beg you not to forget that you are not compelled to give up your sense of enchantment and wonderment at the world just because you are going to undertake a professional career.\"<\/p>\n
What one makes of a life is truly the most important aspect of living,\u00a0Macdonald told graduands. \"The measure of a person is not where you start, or even where you end up.\u00a0It is found in what you make of your life; what you do with the opportunities that you have been given and those that you have striven to create for yourselves,\" he said.<\/p>\n
As well, recognition is not the focus of a life well lived, said Macdonald, and\u00a0acclaim is a transient marker and not a true indicator of success. \"Our virtue is revealed in recognizing the influence that others have had upon us and in the record of what we have stood for, as remembered in the virtuous lives of those who live on when we are gone,\" he said, noting that a career\u00a0in law is a way of being<\/em> alive.<\/p>\n Then, strumming\u00a0a gentle song, he sang: \"There's no place in this world where I'll belong when I'm gone; And I won't know the right from the wrong when I'm gone; You won't find me singing out this song when I'm gone; So I guess I'll have to do it while I'm here.\"<\/p>\n York's 2011\u00a0Spring Convocation ceremonies are streamed live and then archived online. To view Macdonald's convocation address<\/a>, visit the Convocation<\/span><\/a>\u00a0website.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" During Friday's ceremony for Osgoode grads, Canadian legal scholar Roderick Macdonald delivered a master class on the meaning of life that included a song...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[77,7],"yfileauthor":[],"qualifier":[],"yfile-author":[],"tags-to-show":[170,167],"workflow":[],"class_list":["post-17180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-news","tag-convocation","tag-fgs","tags-to-show-convocation","tags-to-show-faculty-of-graduate-studies"],"acf":{"internal_publish_date":null,"original_image":null},"yoast_head":"\n