From the Des Moines Register
June 8, 2008
Listen up, grads to what?
By Rekha Basu
I love graduations. I love their grandeur, sentimentality and inspiration. I get a lump in my throat listening to "Pomp and Circumstance." Commencement ceremonies give you permission to be a voyeur at a critical turning point in people's lives, and to vicariously absorb some of the wisdom imparted to them.
Ranging from the profound to the perfunctory, they offer up more advice to more people in one season than a year of therapy sessions.
But as the quotes above from this year's commencement speeches show, some of that advice is contradictory....
In one speech, "Be Naked as Often as Possible," Genevieve Bell, director of Intel's user-experience group, offered University of California, Berkeley's School of Information graduates four concepts for life after graduate school: "Be present, vulnerable, surprised and brave."
At the other end of the spectrum, "Today Show" co-host Meredith Vieira told graduating Tufts University students, "I did actually make a little bit more of myself, albeit with my clothes on - and quite frankly, I advise you do to the same, keep them on." ...