{"id":1,"date":"2011-06-09T18:43:50","date_gmt":"2011-06-09T22:43:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/speeches\/?p=1"},"modified":"2012-05-09T17:31:49","modified_gmt":"2012-05-09T21:31:49","slug":"hello-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/speeches\/2011\/06\/09\/hello-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Commencement Address, Alan Alda GP&#8217;11"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Delivered at The Williston Northampton School&#8217;s 170th Commencement on June 4, 2011<\/em><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/24732519?title=0&amp;byline=0&amp;portrait=0\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>When I see my granddaughter Emilia graduating today, I guess, like all the parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles and cousins who are here, I\u2019m brimming with love.<\/p>\n<p>You can\u2019t know how much we love you kids. You make us wonderfully happy just by being who you are. You\u2019re the buds of spring. You\u2019re still tasting parts of the world for the first time. You remind us of the days in our own lives when the world was a squishy grape we were biting into for the first time, and we were the first ones ever to feel such an amazing sensation. We know that you have ahead of you a universe of amazing experiences \u2013 and the most amazing of them, some day, may be looking into the eyes of your own young people who will choke you up with the beauty of their pure hearts. And knowing that gives us pleasure, too.<\/p>\n<p>This is a big moment for all of us today. In a few minutes, we\u2019ll go through a ritual that signals your moving on to greater maturity. And the strange thing at a time like this, is how much people our age want to give people your age advice. I don\u2019t know why we do that. You don\u2019t do it.<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->If a friend of yours wins a free trip to Alaska, you don\u2019t say, \u201cYes, well, bring long underwear &#8211; and take your overcoat!\u201d You just say, \u201cOMG,\u201d or something.<\/p>\n<p>Even though we figured it out for ourselves, we think we have to clue you in on the idea that it gets cold outside. But, forgive us &#8211; it\u2019s just our way of saying we love you.<\/p>\n<p>We think the best gift we can give you is to tell you what we we\u2019ve learned. Even if the years you\u2019ve spent with us don\u2019t seem to indicate that we could possibly have learned very much.<\/p>\n<p>I want to tell Emi so many things today, and they\u2019re not big, grand things, they\u2019re practical. I want to tell her things that will preserve her well-being. Like:<\/p>\n<p>Spray your nose with saline twice a day and you&#8217;ll never get a cold.<\/p>\n<p>Take an aspirin when you fly so you don&#8217;t get a stroke.<\/p>\n<p>When you cross a one way street, Look both ways &#8211; or you might get killed by a guy on a bicycle delivering pizza.<\/p>\n<p>You\u2019ll notice, these things aren\u2019t just practical, they\u2019re panicky.<\/p>\n<p>But you\u2019re supposed to say big things at a graduation. They can\u2019t just be practical, they have to be inspiring.<\/p>\n<p>So brace yourself, Emi &#8211; here goes. Here are three pieces of BIG ADVICE:<\/p>\n<p>First, I want to tell you about youth, and old age. And why I think they should be the same thing.<\/p>\n<p>The wisdom that\u2019s supposed to come with old age is really better to have when you\u2019re young &#8211; because you&#8217;re full of energy and you have many more chances to do really dumb things. We want to do dumb things, too, but we need to lie down and rest. Wisdom is wasted on the old. So, arrange to have wisdom now.<\/p>\n<p>Oldness, on the other hand, is to be avoided at any age. When you\u2019re young, you have curiosity, endeavor, candor, skepticism \u2013 and you have optimism. You mustn\u2019t lose any of that, no matter how many years go by.<\/p>\n<p>Most of all, don\u2019t lose the innocence of youth. Stay in that springtime where everything is new.<\/p>\n<p>The director Elia Kazan once said he tried to work with actors before they became slick and looked like actors. He wanted them to look like real people. Don\u2019t become slick. Don\u2019t ever think you\u2019ve got it all figured out. Slick is a kind of smug. It\u2019s admiring yourself in a shop window and not even noticing that the sale of the century is going on inside the store.<\/p>\n<p>Keep being brave. Keep questioning everything. Above all, keep learning. Not because it\u2019s good for you, like broccoli, but because learning is maybe the one thing you can get high on that actually does you good.<\/p>\n<p>The second big piece of advice has to do with old age, too. I heard it when I was a kid.<\/p>\n<p>I was in my first year of college, so I was right about the age you are now. I had a French teacher who told us we ought to prepare right then for our old age. For you, that would be right now. He said we ought to learn about the pleasures of fine music and good books. Not just what\u2019s easy to listen to or comfortable to read, but what\u2019s worth the trouble of decoding for the rich experience it gives you, once you unlock it. For some reason, I did what he said \u2013 and my life has been richer.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve never run out of squishy grapes. There has always been a taste that was newer and deeper, more surprising and more delicious.<\/p>\n<p>But, as you head off for college, or whatever the next step in your life is, you may be thinking about what you\u2019re going to do with your life.<\/p>\n<p>And that\u2019s where Number Three, the Really Big Advice comes in.<\/p>\n<p>All over America this week, people like me are standing before dazed graduates, shoveling out homilies and clich\u00e9s, and probably the most common one will be: \u201cHave a Dream.\u201d I\u2019d like to deconstruct that advice a little. It\u2019s not bad advice \u2013 but it\u2019s not as easy as it sounds. I\u2019ve thought about this a lot lately.<\/p>\n<p>I had a dream. I wanted to be an artist in the theater &#8211; a writer and an actor. And I\u2019m here today because I had that dream. But over the years, I think I\u2019ve figured something out: if all you have is a dream, you\u2019re in trouble.<\/p>\n<p>Martin Luther King had a dream. But he did something about it. And his dream wouldn\u2019t just benefit him, it would raise up the lives of others. Without the crucial ingredients of devotion to it, working on it and doing it with and for other people, a dream is just a dream.<\/p>\n<p>I saw a documentary the other day about Russia. Something in it moved me very much. A man who had been a soldier for many years and now worked as a driver had wanted as a boy to study sea shells. But he never did. He goes to museums now and looks at seashells with longing \u2013 they had been his passion, but he lost his devotion to his passion and never worked on it, and now his dream had turned into just a vague memory.<\/p>\n<p>At the end of the movie about Russia, someone gives the driver a gift of a huge seashell. But, it seems he\u2019s lost touch with what seashells first meant to him. He looks at the shell with a kind of vague admiration &#8211; and then he makes a decision that just amazed me. It took the breath out of me. He decides to cut the shell up and make a lamp out of it.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s as though all he\u2019s left with is a dream of a dream.<\/p>\n<p>So there are two things here. One is: find your seashell. It can save your life. But, two: Never stop working on it, or it will just be a dream.<\/p>\n<p>A dream is not enough. It has to be pursued relentlessly or it becomes this fake thing you wear as a badge, but means nothing. I\u2019m a writer, you say, but you don\u2019t write. Or, I\u2019m a rock musician. But you don\u2019t practice. You just dream.<\/p>\n<p>But, on the other hand, life can be messy. Sometimes a dream comes over you in a casual way, and sticking with it isn\u2019t always the best idea. I\u2019ll make a little confession here. When I was 8 years old I had the dream of being a writer. Later in life, when I was 9, I wanted to be an actor. But for some reason, when I was 12, I started to have this other dream:<\/p>\n<p>Some day, some where, somehow \u2013 I would own a cream puff factory.<\/p>\n<p>I liked cream puffs.<\/p>\n<p>I sort of cringe now. To think that my life could have turned into an endless conveyor belt of cream puffs.<\/p>\n<p>And yet, you have to be agile. Things change. You\u2019ll lose your job or you\u2019ll suddenly realize that you or someone you love is going through a crisis. The thing you counted on to last forever, won\u2019t. And you\u2019ll have to pour your heart into something else.<\/p>\n<p>But whatever it is, and whenever it comes to you, in order to achieve it, you\u2019ll need to work on it &#8211; but you\u2019ll also need other people.<\/p>\n<p>I really think it can\u2019t just be for you. A solitary dream is not only less fun, it probably won\u2019t get you anywhere. A dream that benefits other people will move them to dream with you &#8211; and to work with you. And if it doesn\u2019t make their lives better, it\u2019s probably going to feel a little meaningless.<\/p>\n<p>But, you know\u2026 like most of the advice we offer at times like this, you\u2019ll find out most of this for yourselves. You probably already have. Every generation of young people that I\u2019ve seen has been a little smarter, a little more hip than the last one. So pardon me for stating the obvious, but that\u2019s what we do at times like this. The other thing we do \u2013 all of us \u2013 is try to look into the future and hope for the best.<\/p>\n<p>Can\u2019t do it.<\/p>\n<p>I won\u2019t get to see how it all plays out for you. By the time you\u2019re my age, I won\u2019t be around anymore.<\/p>\n<p>You\u2019ll live to see times that I\u2019ll never know. You\u2019ll do great things I\u2019ll never hear about. You\u2019re on a trajectory that will carry you to places I\u2019ll never see.<\/p>\n<p>Go there with courage and a lightness of spirit.<\/p>\n<p>And don\u2019t forget to bring long underwear and take your overcoat.<\/p>\n<p>Remember, all of you, that you\u2019re very loved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Delivered at The Williston Northampton School&#8217;s 170th Commencement on June 4, 2011 When I see my granddaughter Emilia graduating today, I guess, like all the parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles and cousins who are here, I\u2019m brimming with love. You can\u2019t know how much we love you kids. You make us wonderfully happy just &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/speeches\/2011\/06\/09\/hello-world\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Commencement Address, Alan Alda GP&#8217;11<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[5,6,7],"class_list":["post-1","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commencement-address","category-visiting-speaker","tag-alan-alda-gp11","tag-commencement-address-2","tag-williston-graduation-2011"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/speeches\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/speeches\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/speeches\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/speeches\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/speeches\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/speeches\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/speeches\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions\/5"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/speeches\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/speeches\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/speeches\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}