I haven't read any speeches in a while, and came across this yesterday. Now, I still haven't gotten to actually reading any of Saunders's work (see: http://wingedbywords.blogspot.com/2013/01/feeling-known.html), but I will, one of these days.
And meanwhile, I am so inspired and moved by this speech he gave at Syracuse University earlier this year. Especially this one bit (well, okay, it's more than a bit):
"Do all the other things, the ambitious things – travel, get rich, get
famous, innovate, lead, fall in love, make and lose fortunes, swim
naked in wild jungle rivers (after first having it tested for monkey
poop) – but as you do, to the extent that you can, err in the direction of kindness.
Do those things that incline you toward the big questions, and avoid
the things that would reduce you and make you trivial. That luminous
part of you that exists beyond personality – your soul, if you will – is
as bright and shining as any that has ever been. Bright as
Shakespeare’s, bright as Gandhi’s, bright as Mother Theresa’s. Clear
away everything that keeps you separate from this secret luminous
place. Believe it exists, come to know it better, nurture it, share its
fruits tirelessly."
-George Saunders
It's pretty simple stuff, when it comes down to it: doing things "that incline you toward the big questions," avoiding "the things that would reduce you and make you trivial." Simple and difficult, all at once. But start today. Whatever it is. Take a moment and look up at the night sky. Or close your eyes and breathe and breathe, and just breathe. Read. Listen to music. Make music. Be kind.
And remember, "That luminous
part of you that exists beyond personality – your soul, if you will – is
as bright and shining as any that has ever been. Bright as
Shakespeare’s, bright as Gandhi’s, bright as Mother Theresa’s. Clear
away everything that keeps you separate from this secret luminous
place."
To being kind. To nurturing that "luminous part of you."
For the full text: http://6thfloor.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/31/george-saunderss-advice-to-graduates/?src=me
Showing posts with label commencement speech. Show all posts
Showing posts with label commencement speech. Show all posts
Monday, August 5, 2013
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Richard Russo's 2004 Commencement Speech
For the full text: http://www.colby.edu/news/detail/488/
...suggest what the next decade of your lives is likely to be about, and that is, trying to ensure that you don't wake up at 32 or 35 or 40 tenured to a life that happened to you when you weren't paying strict attention, either because the money was good, or it made your parents proud, or because you were unlucky enough to discover an aptitude for the very thing that bores you to tears, or for any of the other semi-valid reasons people marshal to justify allowing the true passion of their lives to leak away. If you're lucky, you may have more than one chance to get things right, but second and third chances, like second and third marriages, can be dicey propositions, and they don't come with guarantees.
-Richard Russo
I don't want to wake up one day tenured to a life that happened - I want to make my life happen. To make the things that I want happen. But oh, sometimes it feels so far away, doesn't it?
Search out the kind of work that you would gladly do for free and then get somebody to pay you for it. Don't expect this to happen overnight. It took me nearly twenty years to get people to pay me a living wage for my writing, which makes me, even at this juncture, one of the fortunate few. Your work should be something that satisfies, excites and rewards you, something that gives your life meaning and direction, that stays fresh and new and challenging, a task you'll never quite master, that will never be completed. It should be the kind of work that constantly humbles you, that never allows you to become smug—in short, work that sustains you instead of just paying your bills. While you search for this work, you'll need a job. For me that job was teaching, and it's a fine thing to be good at your job, as long as you don't confuse it with your work, which it's hard not to do.
-Richard Russo
I know, I know. I am obsessed with work quotes. But I can't help it, at this particular time in my life. I keep reading these quotes about doing what you love in the hopes that it will make me courageous enough to well, do it. I'm still working on it, obviously.
I have a job. But I'm still looking for my work. I wonder how many other people out there are in the same boat.
To working on the true passion of our lives and doing our own work.
...suggest what the next decade of your lives is likely to be about, and that is, trying to ensure that you don't wake up at 32 or 35 or 40 tenured to a life that happened to you when you weren't paying strict attention, either because the money was good, or it made your parents proud, or because you were unlucky enough to discover an aptitude for the very thing that bores you to tears, or for any of the other semi-valid reasons people marshal to justify allowing the true passion of their lives to leak away. If you're lucky, you may have more than one chance to get things right, but second and third chances, like second and third marriages, can be dicey propositions, and they don't come with guarantees.
-Richard Russo
I don't want to wake up one day tenured to a life that happened - I want to make my life happen. To make the things that I want happen. But oh, sometimes it feels so far away, doesn't it?
Search out the kind of work that you would gladly do for free and then get somebody to pay you for it. Don't expect this to happen overnight. It took me nearly twenty years to get people to pay me a living wage for my writing, which makes me, even at this juncture, one of the fortunate few. Your work should be something that satisfies, excites and rewards you, something that gives your life meaning and direction, that stays fresh and new and challenging, a task you'll never quite master, that will never be completed. It should be the kind of work that constantly humbles you, that never allows you to become smug—in short, work that sustains you instead of just paying your bills. While you search for this work, you'll need a job. For me that job was teaching, and it's a fine thing to be good at your job, as long as you don't confuse it with your work, which it's hard not to do.
-Richard Russo
I know, I know. I am obsessed with work quotes. But I can't help it, at this particular time in my life. I keep reading these quotes about doing what you love in the hopes that it will make me courageous enough to well, do it. I'm still working on it, obviously.
I have a job. But I'm still looking for my work. I wonder how many other people out there are in the same boat.
To working on the true passion of our lives and doing our own work.
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Oprah's 2008 Commencement Speech
(For the full transcript of the speech, see: http://news.stanford.edu/news/2008/june18/como-061808.html)
"...walk through life eager and open to self-improvement and that which is going to best help you evolve, 'cause that's really why we're here, to evolve as human beings. To grow into more of ourselves, always moving to the next level of understanding, the next level of compassion and growth.
And I believe that there's a lesson in almost everything that you do and every experience, and getting the lesson is how you move forward."
Self-improvement can sound kind of hokey. But if you really think about it, you're trying to make yourself a better person. Who care if it sounds hokey? I want to evolve as a human being, and always keep growing.
"When you're doing the work you're meant to do, it feels right and every day is a bonus, regardless of what you're getting paid.
...
And how do you know when you're doing something right? How do you know that? It feels so. What I know now is that feelings are really your GPS system for life. When you're supposed to do something or not supposed to do something, your emotional guidance system lets you know...If it doesn't feel right, don't do it. That's the lesson...There are many times when you don't know what to do. When you don't know what to do, get still, get very still, until you do know what to do."
I'm going to keep searching for the work I'm meant to do. So far, I've learned about the work I'm not meant to do. And you know what? That's part of finding what you are meant to do.
"...forget about the fast lane. If you really want to fly, just harness your power to your passion. Honor your calling. Everybody has one. Trust your heart and success will come to you.
...
But having a lot of money does not automatically make you a successful person. What you want is money and meaning. You want your work to be meaningful. Because meaning is what brings the real richness to your life. What you really want is to be surrounded by people you trust and treasure and by people who cherish you. That's when you're really rich."
There are so many different definitions of success. Mine includes doing meaningful work. I want to be excited to go off to work in the morning and find my work meaningful and be interested in things. Not just what I'm doing, but in what other people are doing, in what's happening in the world at large. (It can feel small sometimes, but a lot of things can happen out there!)
"If things go wrong, you hit a dead end—as you will—it's just life's way of saying time to change course. So, ask every failure—this is what I do with every failure, every crisis, every difficult time—I say, what is this here to teach me? And as soon as you get the lesson, you get to move on. If you really get the lesson, you pass and you don't have to repeat the class. If you don't get the lesson, it shows up wearing another pair of pants—or skirt—to give you some remedial work.
But, if you ask the right question—not why is this happening, but what is this here to teach me?—it puts you in the place and space to get the lesson you need."
I'd like to approach failures this way. I need to work on asking what lessons are in the failures.
"This is what I know for sure: In order to be truly happy, you must live along with and you have to stand for something larger than yourself. Because life is a reciprocal exchange. To move forward you have to give back. And to me, that is the greatest lesson of life. To be happy, you have to give something back. ...if you're hurting, you need to help somebody ease their hurt...
...helping others is the way we help ourselves."
I completely agree. Okay, this is going to sound kind of silly, but I helped someone find a book at the library yesterday, and it made me feel pretty happy. Yes, it's a very small act (I didn't cure cancer or facilitate peace in the Middle East or anything like that), but I helped someone when I could have chosen not to. I didn't know him. I don't work at the library. But I took the time to help him and honestly, I improved my day and his. So go out there and help someone find a book or something. Improve your day and someone else's.
"So, I know this—that whether you're an actor, you offer your talent in the way that most inspires art. If you're an anatomist, you look at your gift as knowledge and service to healing... if you choose to offer your skills and talent in service, when you choose the paradigm of service, looking at life through that paradigm, it turns everything you do from a job into a gift."
Whatever you do, think of it as a gift.
To finding the lesson, honoring your calling, and helping others.
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Conan O'Brien's 2011 Commencement Speech
"Your path at 22 will not necessarily be your path at 32 or 42. One’s
dream is constantly evolving, rising and falling, changing course."
I need to remember this.
"No specific job or career goal defines me and it should not define you. In 2000, I told graduates to not be afraid to fail, and I still believe that. But today I tell you that whether you fear it or not, disappointment will come. The beauty is that through disappointment you can gain clarity, and with clarity comes conviction and true originality."
You are not defined by your job. You are not defined by your goals, even. I'm not entirely sure what people are defined by - another one of those maddening questions that don't really have an answer but I wonder about, anyway - but it's not your job. You are more than what you do to earn a living, more than what you buy, more than what you say.
To changing dreams and defining ourselves.
I need to remember this.
"No specific job or career goal defines me and it should not define you. In 2000, I told graduates to not be afraid to fail, and I still believe that. But today I tell you that whether you fear it or not, disappointment will come. The beauty is that through disappointment you can gain clarity, and with clarity comes conviction and true originality."
You are not defined by your job. You are not defined by your goals, even. I'm not entirely sure what people are defined by - another one of those maddening questions that don't really have an answer but I wonder about, anyway - but it's not your job. You are more than what you do to earn a living, more than what you buy, more than what you say.
To changing dreams and defining ourselves.
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Neil Gaiman 2012 Commencement Speech
For full text of Neil Gaiman's speech: http://www.uarts.edu/neil-gaiman-keynote-address.
"And remember that whatever discipline you are in, whether you are a musician or a photographer, a fine artist or a cartoonist, a writer, a dancer, a designer, whatever you do you have one thing that's unique. You have the ability to make art.
And for me, and for so many of the people I have known, that's been a lifesaver. The ultimate lifesaver. It gets you through good times and it gets you through the other ones."
-Neil Gaiman
“In a time of destruction, create something.”
― Maxine Hong Kingston
I think these two quotes go together pretty well. It doesn't matter who you are or what you do for a living, I think creating something - writing or taking pictures or singing or playing an instrument or whatever you do - helps in not-so-great situations. Maybe not right away, but eventually.
And there's kind of a balance to it, too, don't you think? When there is destruction, if you create, at least you have added some little bit of energy, of newness in the world. Even if it's just a silly poem you wrote, nonsensical and laughable...well, you did something, didn't you? You created something. And that's not nothing. Maybe it's not on the same scale as the destruction, whatever it was, and it doesn't even out, but still. It's something. You're adding to art, to creation.
"And remember that whatever discipline you are in, whether you are a musician or a photographer, a fine artist or a cartoonist, a writer, a dancer, a designer, whatever you do you have one thing that's unique. You have the ability to make art.
And for me, and for so many of the people I have known, that's been a lifesaver. The ultimate lifesaver. It gets you through good times and it gets you through the other ones."
-Neil Gaiman
“In a time of destruction, create something.”
― Maxine Hong Kingston
I think these two quotes go together pretty well. It doesn't matter who you are or what you do for a living, I think creating something - writing or taking pictures or singing or playing an instrument or whatever you do - helps in not-so-great situations. Maybe not right away, but eventually.
And there's kind of a balance to it, too, don't you think? When there is destruction, if you create, at least you have added some little bit of energy, of newness in the world. Even if it's just a silly poem you wrote, nonsensical and laughable...well, you did something, didn't you? You created something. And that's not nothing. Maybe it's not on the same scale as the destruction, whatever it was, and it doesn't even out, but still. It's something. You're adding to art, to creation.
Monday, July 30, 2012
David McCullough, Jr.'s 2012 Commencement Speech
(Full text of the speech: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/commencement-speaker-blasts-students/2012/06/08/gJQATvF1MV_blog.html)
I've always liked reading commencement speeches. There's something sweet in just the very fact of a commencement speech, don't you think? One generation passing on advice and wisdom to the next. Listening to them (at least the ones I've heard in person - I don't remember anything from a single one I've heard), not so much. So I've been reading some lately, and thought I'd post a few quotes I especially liked.
David McCullough, Jr.'s speech made me laugh. I found it funny and witty and true.
If you’ve learned anything in your years here I hope it’s that education should be for, rather than material advantage, the exhilaration of learning. You’ve learned, too, I hope, as Sophocles assured us, that wisdom is the chief element of happiness. (Second is ice cream… just an fyi) I also hope you’ve learned enough to recognize how little you know… how little you know now… at the moment… for today is just the beginning. It’s where you go from here that matters.
I love how he mentions wisdom and ice cream in the same breath, pretty much. (Makes me want to go eat some ice cream and read Sophocles.) Plus, I agree whole-heartedly with what he says about what education is for. Honestly, a lot of the things I learned in school I have no idea if/when I'm ever going to need them...but I'm glad I know them. Well, some of them, at least.
And the thing about school and learning is that you keep learning after you're done with school. It's better in some ways, since you can decide to a much larger extent what you want to learn.
I urge you to do whatever you do for no reason other than you love it and believe in its importance.
I need to work on this one.
And read… read all the time… read as a matter of principle, as a matter of self-respect. Read as a nourishing staple of life. Develop and protect a moral sensibility and demonstrate the character to apply it.
Yes, yes, yes.
Like accolades ought to be, the fulfilled life is a consequence, a gratifying byproduct. It’s what happens when you’re thinking about more important things. Climb the mountain not to plant your flag, but to embrace the challenge, enjoy the air and behold the view. Climb it so you can see the world, not so the world can see you. Go to Paris to be in Paris, not to cross it off your list and congratulate yourself for being worldly. Exercise free will and creative, independent thought not for the satisfactions they will bring you, but for the good they will do others, the rest of the 6.8 billion–and those who will follow them. And then you too will discover the great and curious truth of the human experience is that selflessness is the best thing you can do for yourself. The sweetest joys of life, then, come only with the recognition that you’re not special.
Because everyone is.
Along with meaning, I've also been thinking about fulfillment lately. I'd like to figure out how to live a fulfilled life (along with everyone else). And of course it's paradoxical (at least according to McCullough, Jr.): "happens when you're thinking about more important things." It would be, wouldn't it?
I don't think there's any one recipe for living a fulfilled life. But I do think selflessness is (probably) a part of it.
So here's to finding (or at least embarking on a grand quest for) fulfillment and being selfless.
I've always liked reading commencement speeches. There's something sweet in just the very fact of a commencement speech, don't you think? One generation passing on advice and wisdom to the next. Listening to them (at least the ones I've heard in person - I don't remember anything from a single one I've heard), not so much. So I've been reading some lately, and thought I'd post a few quotes I especially liked.
David McCullough, Jr.'s speech made me laugh. I found it funny and witty and true.
If you’ve learned anything in your years here I hope it’s that education should be for, rather than material advantage, the exhilaration of learning. You’ve learned, too, I hope, as Sophocles assured us, that wisdom is the chief element of happiness. (Second is ice cream… just an fyi) I also hope you’ve learned enough to recognize how little you know… how little you know now… at the moment… for today is just the beginning. It’s where you go from here that matters.
I love how he mentions wisdom and ice cream in the same breath, pretty much. (Makes me want to go eat some ice cream and read Sophocles.) Plus, I agree whole-heartedly with what he says about what education is for. Honestly, a lot of the things I learned in school I have no idea if/when I'm ever going to need them...but I'm glad I know them. Well, some of them, at least.
And the thing about school and learning is that you keep learning after you're done with school. It's better in some ways, since you can decide to a much larger extent what you want to learn.
I urge you to do whatever you do for no reason other than you love it and believe in its importance.
I need to work on this one.
And read… read all the time… read as a matter of principle, as a matter of self-respect. Read as a nourishing staple of life. Develop and protect a moral sensibility and demonstrate the character to apply it.
Yes, yes, yes.
Like accolades ought to be, the fulfilled life is a consequence, a gratifying byproduct. It’s what happens when you’re thinking about more important things. Climb the mountain not to plant your flag, but to embrace the challenge, enjoy the air and behold the view. Climb it so you can see the world, not so the world can see you. Go to Paris to be in Paris, not to cross it off your list and congratulate yourself for being worldly. Exercise free will and creative, independent thought not for the satisfactions they will bring you, but for the good they will do others, the rest of the 6.8 billion–and those who will follow them. And then you too will discover the great and curious truth of the human experience is that selflessness is the best thing you can do for yourself. The sweetest joys of life, then, come only with the recognition that you’re not special.
Because everyone is.
Along with meaning, I've also been thinking about fulfillment lately. I'd like to figure out how to live a fulfilled life (along with everyone else). And of course it's paradoxical (at least according to McCullough, Jr.): "happens when you're thinking about more important things." It would be, wouldn't it?
I don't think there's any one recipe for living a fulfilled life. But I do think selflessness is (probably) a part of it.
So here's to finding (or at least embarking on a grand quest for) fulfillment and being selfless.
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