Life as a Journey

Regular readers of this blog are accustomed to tales of Deb and my journeys around the world. This blog entry is dedicated to a trip last weekend to Berkeley and San Francisco to witness the graduation of our son Ian from a masters program at UC Berkeley. This was not so much a journey in time and space but a life journey. It was a journey that caused me to reflect on life. Many of you are fellow parents and have lived the joys and sorrows of raising our children. As parents we work out of love and do the best we are able to do for our children. From my perspective, our responsibility is to get our children to adulthood and give them the tools to survive in life. After that, it is largely up to them. Once our children become adults we don't have a lot of control on what they do. I don't think we should blame ourselves when they fail to live up to our expectations nor can we really take credit for their achievements. However, this perspective does not diminish our pain in difficult times nor our pride when our children do well. Please indulge me in a little pride on my child's recent accomplishment.



In our usual last minute fashion Deb and I jumped into the car the morning of graduation for the four hour trip to Berkeley from our home in Mt Shasta. It was a fine spring day and a beautiful drive through Northern California to the San Francisco Bay. We arrived in Berkeley with time to spare.



As we entered the campus through Sather Gate I teared up, not from nostalgia but, from the memory of being tear gassed there over 40 years ago in an anti-war demonstration.


We wandered through the campus surrounded by kids in graduation robes and their proud parents snapping endless photos of the campus, each other and their children. Our eye was drawn to the Campanile which is a 300 foot tower that looms over the campus and is visible from much of the Bay area. Incidentally, it is the third tallest clock tower in the world. Most people don't know that it is officially called Sather Tower in honor of Jane Sather who donated the funds for the tower and aforementioned gate.



As we turned the corner by South Hall, which is the only original building left on the campus, we noted several tables with umbrellas set out on the lawn. We thought, someone is going to have a nice reception here. (Remember this for later). Next our eyes were drawn to the Campanile which now loomed directly over us. We climbed the steps to the base of the tower accompanied by a trumpet trio playing some rather regal classical music. As we reached the top we saw rows of white chairs arranged along the Campanile Esplanade under knobby London plane trees bracketing the chairs. A small stage with lectern faced the chairs. We were greeted by our in-laws Steve and Barbara, and Ian's wife Tiara.






Shortly thereafter, the small faculty of the Information School (or the ischool as the students fondly refer to it) filed onto the stage and took seats to the rear of the stage. The trumpet trio broke into Pomp and Circumstance and the graduate candidates filed up the center aisle and took their seats directly in front of the stage. The Dean of the college gave a rambling introduction highlighting the achievements of the class with special reference to some of the outstanding Master's final projects. I had a flash of pride when she mentioned Ian's project as being one of the particularly notable projects. Next we listened to another rambling speech by Reid Hoffman who either started up or was an angel in start ups of seemingly half the internet companies in Silicon Valley. While his delivery was long winded it presented the grads with the idea of, "Be an Entrepreneur" in all aspects of your life.

He was followed by a pair of student speakers who attempted to answer the question in all of our minds; what is the School of Information and what do the degrees mean? It was a humorous presentation from which I gathered that Ian was getting a master's degree in Information Systems and Management. Still confused? So am I. Actually, Ian's focus was on software usability, user-centered design, and developing great software.

Next on the agenda was the presentation of the James R Chen Awards which reward innovation, creative solutions, and pragmatic applications in the area of information retrieval and management. The awards are given in three different categories. The first was for Analysis of Information Systems. The dean read off several honorable mentions and then announced that this award would go to the team of Daniel Perry and Ian McDowell. The earlier flash of pride I felt at the Dean's introduction was now a total conflagration. Deb and I were both overcome with emotion. She could barely get a picture of the presentation because she was so excited. We did not even hear the next two award presentations as we were so surprised (as was Ian which we later found out).

Ian and Daniel receive the Chen Award

Ian and his partner had developed a game called Heart Focus which is an analytical tool that employs a heart monitor to provide bio feedback to children to enable them to focus on academic tasks. If you want to know more about the game follow this link:

http://www.ischool.berkeley.edu/programs/masters/projects/2011/biofocus.



Finally, each candidate was called to the stage to receive their diploma. As the carillons in the tower bonged out 3 o'clock the dean made a few concluding remarks and invited us all to a reception on the lawn in front of South Hall. (Remember the tables and umbrellas).



We wandered over to the reception which was quite elegant with cloth draped tables, tasty appetizers and beverages including fine California wines and beer.

Steve, Barbara, Ian, Tiara, and Richard enjoying the reception

We hung out for an hour or so after which Ian gave us a tour of the School of Information in the South Hall. South Hall is a quintessential university building of brick and stone with fine and elaborate woodwork.

Ian and Tiara on the steps of South Hall

After the tour we joined the gridlock of traffic on College Avenue to head down to Doppo, an Italian restaurant in Oakland, for a celebratory dinner.

Chen Award winners Daniel and Ian and friends

Leaving campus for the last time


San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge

After spending the night at Ian and Tiara's we returned to Mt Shasta and awoke the next morning to a snow covered landscape. Ah, spring in the mountains.

Our "spring" garden