No where in the world could there be as messy a doctoral ceremony as this one at Tel Aviv.  Even the BA ceremony at Barnard where the sense of anarchy and revolution dominated every aspect of the ceremony,  Here it was a forced sense of joy – Clearly the occasion demands celebration, but how can one celebrate when one’s colleagues are – hostages, dead, in the army, crazy….

I wanted to leave when the drums took over – even though they were great girls – I don’t thin the rector of the university should be preceeded by a drum.   Or the other deans and rectors.  The doctorants – maybe.  But there were so many of them!

Okay I had nothing to complain about.  Maybe if I had eaten of the elegant spread I’d be less crochety.  And the address was wonderful.  Even though I’m embarassed I don’t know the name of the researcher who concluded her technical brain research lecture with the idea that antithetical science experiments should work together to find the answers that combine the antitheses.  

In a crowd of people who are so different they could not sing the anthem with any unity, this was an important talk.