on graduation speeches
earlier today, i wrote about my second graduation speech at stanford. my first, also a well recognized speech, was delivered by steve jobs in '05. i'm embarrassed to recall my erstwhile opinion of it. please believe that those times have passed, not to resurface.
today, when p and i shared our thoughts on reading oprah 10 months later, she wrote:
he shared three stories with us. the first was about connecting the dots. i realized that i never quite got this before. even today, it took me a few reads to understand the take-away from this story. which was that the dots in our life do connect. we can't see this going forward, but if we look back, it's inescapably obvious. and so we should believe.
the second was about love and loss. it really is inspiring that jobs lost his job at apple and reconstructed his life only to be pulled back into apple. he always stuck to doing what he loved. and he was strong enough to turn his loss to success. inspiring, to say the least.
the third was about death. this resonated more than any other part. and you'll know why if you've been reading my blog (this thread in particular). i'm far from internalizing this understanding, but i'm so dead intent on getting there i'm confident i shall. this is where i was struck by how some lessons are truly difficult to embrace unless we go through them ourselves. we are, after all, a function of our own experiences. nevertheless, the more we try, the more we are able to empathize. and the more we empathize, the more we are able to love. and that's as noble a goal as any, isn't it?
i'm grateful today for graduation speeches. i'm grateful that i got to sit in that hot, hot football stadium and listen to steve and oprah talk. i'm silly for having been so silly in the past. please grant thy forgiveness, dear god.
today, when p and i shared our thoughts on reading oprah 10 months later, she wrote:
do read steve jobs's speech now. i remember you disliked it. let's see how you feel about that one now :).here's the speech. and in fact, it was my plan all along to read it later in the evening, for precisely p's reason. when i saw her mail i read it right away, and part of me said "aaargh! why was i so fond of being a dork in those days?" but most of me was struck with awe as i read and re-read and really let the words sink in. i summarize for my benefit (and possibly yours?).
he shared three stories with us. the first was about connecting the dots. i realized that i never quite got this before. even today, it took me a few reads to understand the take-away from this story. which was that the dots in our life do connect. we can't see this going forward, but if we look back, it's inescapably obvious. and so we should believe.
the second was about love and loss. it really is inspiring that jobs lost his job at apple and reconstructed his life only to be pulled back into apple. he always stuck to doing what he loved. and he was strong enough to turn his loss to success. inspiring, to say the least.
the third was about death. this resonated more than any other part. and you'll know why if you've been reading my blog (this thread in particular). i'm far from internalizing this understanding, but i'm so dead intent on getting there i'm confident i shall. this is where i was struck by how some lessons are truly difficult to embrace unless we go through them ourselves. we are, after all, a function of our own experiences. nevertheless, the more we try, the more we are able to empathize. and the more we empathize, the more we are able to love. and that's as noble a goal as any, isn't it?
i'm grateful today for graduation speeches. i'm grateful that i got to sit in that hot, hot football stadium and listen to steve and oprah talk. i'm silly for having been so silly in the past. please grant thy forgiveness, dear god.
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