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Timothy Johnson, M.D., medical editor for ABC News, delivered
the principal address and received an honorary degree on
May 26, as the College graduated 643 seniors at its 154th
Commencement.
Others receiving honorary degrees were Eavan Boland, an Irish poet and essayist
and The Melvin and Bill Lane Professor in the Humanities at Stanford University
where she is also the director of the Creative Writing Program; Aaron Lazare,
M.D., chancellor of the University of Massachusetts/Worcester and dean of the
medical school; and Sister Mary Rose McGeady, president and chief executive officer
of Covenant House, the largest privately funded childcare agency in the United
States, providing shelter and service to homeless and runaway youth.
Charles S. Meyer, an economics major from Cheyenne, Wyo., delivered the valedictory.
Johnson, one of the nation’s leading medical communicators
of health care information, has provided commentary on medical
problems and answers for viewers since 1975. In addition
to commentary on WCVB Channel 5 and Good Morning America,
Johnson provides on-air analysis of medical news for World
News Tonight, Nightline and 20/20. He holds joint positions
in medicine at Harvard University and Massachusetts General
Hospital in Boston and is the founding editor of the Harvard
Medical School Health Letter and co-editor of the Harvard
Medical School Health Letter Book.
“If you listen only to the habits of your mind and ignore the murmurs of
your heart,” Johnson advised the graduates, “you will miss out on
some wonderful opportunities to make choices that will bring you joy.” He
then recounted his own life-changing story of a choice made by listening to his
heart.
In the summer of 1968, between his junior and senior years in medical school,
Johnson and his wife, a nurse, worked at a missionary clinic at the northernmost
tip of Indonesia. “An 18-month old child was abandoned on the steps of
our modest hospital,” he said, “and I got to know him immediately
because he had some medical problems. I would play with him every day while making
rounds. One night, we were going to a birthday party for one of the Indonesian
nurses. On impulse, I picked the child up and brought him along to the party.
After the party, my wife said, ‘why don’t we bring him back to our
room and give him a bath,’ which we did. I went down to the only store
in the village and bought him a pair of pants and shoes, and we played with him
that night. And when it was time to bring him back to the hospital, I said, ‘well,
why don’t we keep him overnight and I’ll bring him back in the morning
when I go to work.’
“And in the morning,” Johnson said, “we
sat at the breakfast table and looked at each other and we
knew, in our hearts, that he was ours. And we made the instant
decision to adopt him. Now, if we had listened only to the
habits of our minds, we would have known that we were in
no position to start a family—we had no money, I had
many years of training ahead. But we were open, thank God,
in that moment, to the voice of God in our hearts.”
Johnson explained that his son is now a 33-year-old furniture designer and that
this December, he and his wife will present the Johnsons with their first grandchild.
In conclusion, Johnson told the graduates, “I know that every one of you
is sitting here this morning thinking about your future. You are spinning out
a blueprint in your mind. And what I want to urge you—to beg you—to
do is to leave some open spaces in that blueprint marked ‘TBA—to
be announced.’ Because I guarantee you that there will be opportunities,
crossroads that will come your way that you cannot begin to imagine as you sit
here this morning. And when they do, please listen to your heart. Because it
is the voice of God.”
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