Children grow up fast, according to the cliché. Yet I feel that it was an age ago that I wrote, “About three weeks ago, my second daughter, Ann, was born.” A good age, but an age nevertheless. This weekend I had the pleasure, along with her mother and sister, of attending Ann’s graduation from Illinois State University.

Commencement took place at the school’s CEFCU Arena on Friday evening.

She was among the sea of mortar boards.

The crowd was spirited, so you couldn’t quite hear everything everyone said, but so what? I’m glad to report that none of the speakers, all people affiliated with the school in one way or the other, spoke at any great length. That’s another cliché, that commencement speeches are completely forgettable. That one happens to be true, with vanishingly few exceptions. But it was good that no one spent a long time being forgettable.