Finis Origine Pendet

Finis Origine Pendet: To Zig and to Zag
Now, if you continue looking around the room, you'll see the plaque with the Academy seal. Non sibi has been mentioned, and there are two other sayings on the seal. One is in Latin, finis origine pendet, which means "the end depends on the beginning." I have thought about that, along with the other mottoes. If you project the end from a beginning, there's a temptation to say, "Well, if I'm here, the end point should be to go to a particular college or into a particular career." I don't think that's what the saying means at all. I think what Exeter teaches us is that it's the process of what we learn along the way and the exploration that matter, rather than the particular end point. And that, I think, is something for us to take to heart as well.

There's a poem that I read in my first week as a prep, which maybe you've read, too, called "Ithaka." It's by a Greek poet, Cavafy. I'll share a few lines:

When you set out for Ithaka,
ask that your way be long,
full of adventure, full of instruction . . .
Do not in the least hurry the journey.
Better that it last for years,
so that when you reach the island, you are old,
rich with all that you have gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to give you wealth.
Ithaka gave you the splendid journey.
Without her you would not have set out.
She hasn't anything else to give you.
And if you find her poor, Ithaka has not deceived you,
so wise have you become, of such experience,
that already you will have understood what these Ithakas mean.

Exeter is a beginning. It's a place where we start our splendid journey. I don't think I've ever talked to anyone who took a year off before college, or two or three or four years off after college before finding a career, who didn't find that time incredibly interesting. So, I would submit that if you zig and zag, that's what the motto finis origine pendet really means. That's the "end" that depends on each beginning, and you are well armed to go into that sort of adventure.

Chariti Theou: Our Great Good Fortune
And finally, there's the motto on the seal that nobody ever talks about, perhaps because they can't pronounce it. It's the one in Greek, chariti theou, which means "by the grace of God," or, a little more loosely, "by good fortune." It is important, and it overarches all this other stuff, because it reminds us that you don't ultimately have control over everything-that you experience with gratitude what comes along. And that, in particular, this place is something that happens to us, and you don't really understand it, but it happens to you in a wonderful and mysterious way.

What is it that brought you here? Why are you here and not at Andover? OK, maybe not at Andover. What brought you all together as classmates? Why is it that you're in this great place and you've become friends over one and two and three and four years? How is it that you get to spend time together for a lifetime as alumni? Why is it that I'm blessed by having a number of my wonderful classmates from 1968 here, people whom I trust more than anyone else in the world because I know what we've gone through together-and you've gone through it together, as well. That's an instance of chariti theou, of good fortune, of a divine, providential grace that you will experience here as you go through the whole of your Exeter career.

When we in the class of 1968 were here, in our prep year we had a bonfire because we swept Andover. When we were seniors, Martin Luther King was assassinated. There were joyous times, there were amazingly difficult times, and that's what you carry with you all the way through Exeter and beyond.

As I look around the room, I see my colleagues and friends from the library, from the alumni/ae affairs and development office, all of whom have been incredibly wonderful to work with and who really make the school what it is. I see members of the faculty, many of my own teachers here, and faculty colleagues and trustees. That is the chariti theou, the grace of God, the good fortune, the providential mystery that we experience and we remember.

But what's most important about this occasion is not the trustees and, with respect, not the class of '51 and not the class of '68 and not me. It's the students. It's you all, because the Academy belongs to you. The school is recreated all the time. The seniors are about to become alumni, while the next class beyond, waiting in the wings, assumes leadership.

So I would like to end by saying congratulations to the class of 2001 upon your graduation as you become alumni and leaders of the school. To 2002, as you become leaders next year. To 2003 as you are waiting in the wings and learning. And to the irrepressibly prep-powered class of 2004, as you learn from all the others. Now your voices belong to this hall as well, with the many other voices that are around us. It lifts my heart to be here and to be part of this school. Thank you, Exeter.

— By Robert N. Shapiro '68

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