So, barring disaster, in a bit over seven months I graduate from SLIS.
Yeah. Freaks me out too.
Anyway, so the tradition is that graduating students can approach the microphone and say their piece during the SLIS ceremony. Me, I want to honor somebody I dearly hope would be proud of me. And boy, did he ever love Saint Augustine.
I’m not especially fond of the man from Hippo myself, but he was quite a prolific writer, so I figured there had to be something pithy of his I could read aloud without wincing. (Yes, I thought of “tolle, lege” right away, but it’s a wee bit short, don’t you think?)
I went digging around in English quotation dictionaries, and found something suitable; the trick then was to figure out where the quote was actually from, since most quotation dictionaries only cite the author. Mission accomplished: it’s sermon number 169. Yay! Now to find it in Latin…
… and that’s where I’m stuck. I cannot find (online or in MadCat) a Latin edition of Augustine’s sermons that happens to include 169! There are some ($DEITY help me) microfilms that might have it, but no guarantees—and no books. Not one.
Right. Now I’m ticked. I flatly refuse to walk up on that stage now without that scrap of Latin in hand. My honor as a librarian is at stake.
This. Means. War.
Addendum: What I get for writing Monrroyo posts instead of hunting for Augustine. Pascale went and found it for me:
Proficere; ne forte non intellegatis, et pigrius ambuletis. Proficite, fratres mei, discutite vos semper sine dolo, sine adulatione, sine palpatione. Non enim aliquis est intus tecum, cui erubescas, et iactes te. Est ibi, sed cui placet humilitas, ipse te probet. Proba et te ipsum tu ipse. Semper tibi displiceat quod es, si vis pervenire ad id quod nondum es. Nam ubi tibi placuisti, ibi remansisti. Si autem dixeris: Sufficit; et peristi. Semper adde, semper ambula, semper profice; noli in via remanere, noli retro redire, noli deviare.
Well, phew. Now I can graduate.
