‘The Reveal’

There is a dramatic moment near the end of most so-called reality TV shows that is called, in the vernacular of television production, “The Reveal.” Whatever the challenge — to redecorate a room or a whole house, to lose weight, to revamp an out-of-style haircut or wardrobe — all the inspiration, planning, hard work, tears, and ultimate joy culminates in a great unveiling. People’s jaws drop. They laugh. They scream and carry on. Television producers know this is all so satisfying and irresistible to the human psyche. We see that hard work equals results. It validates our sacrifices and gives us hope. The closest thing we, as a town, have to a Reveal is Newtown High School’s annual graduation ceremony.

This highly anticipated event next Tuesday evening is not about appearances, although the photos of the graduating seniors we feature in this week’s edition of The Bee look pretty good to us. The graduates this year present themselves in all the amazing iterations of youth, which no one face, or hairstyle, or personality can define. As is always the case with young people, there is originality in their conformity, innovation in their conventions, and certainty in their doubts about the status quo that move them inexorably into the future. Each successive class to emerge from Newtown High School is like nothing we have ever seen before, though each somehow reminds us of ourselves, our youth, our young ideas about the future, which are now mostly curiosities preserved in the amber of nostalgia.

This simultaneous looping forward and backward at graduation time knits us together as a community. Producing Newtown High School graduates is the best thing Newtown does. It is why we shortchange the road repair budget and buy overpriced chocolate bars from little strangers on the sidewalks outside supermarkets. Despite all the pomp and circumstance of graduation — and all the laughing, screaming, and carrying on that goes with it — we know that this particular show is more about reality than any other production we can collectively mount. It is about hard work and results, sacrifice and hope. It is the dramatic moment that reveals something good about our community. And for that reason we find it completely satisfying and irresistible.

We offer our sincere good wishes and congratulations to the Newtown High School Class of 2008.