Saints and Sinners: Part 1: To the class of 2003
To the members of the high school graduating classes of 2003:
You probably think I’m going to speak to you today about how you can change the world — and heaven knows the world needs changing. Commencement speakers often address graduating classes about that theme.
They may tell the story of a cynic who boasted, “I could build a better world than this,” only to receive the retort of the wise man, “Why don’t you then? That’s why God put you here.”
Don’t forget that story. It’s a good one. But today I am going to speak to you not about how to change the world but how to “enhance the quality of the day,” which, said Henry David Thoreau, “is the highest of the arts.”
Most of the commencement speakers I have heard have attempted to inspire their young audiences to aim high in life and to have lofty goals. As they sat there listening, many of those graduating seniors may have dreamed of becoming famous doctors or lawyers or statesmen or football stars.
We need to see visions and dream dreams. “Where there is no vision, the people perish,” says the Bible in Proverbs 29:18. We need to have our sights raised to great possibilities.
But there may be something we need even more — and that is to see the possibilities in each day — each 24-hour day of our lives.
There are some people whose dreams of the future — and whose planning for the future — consume so much time that they miss the wonder that each day has to offer. They miss, as Folliot S. Pierpoint put it in the hymn “For the Beauty of the Earth”: “the beauty of the earth … the glory of the skies … the love which, from our birth, over and around us lies … the joy of ear and eye … the heart and mind’s delight … the mystic harmony linking sense to sound and sight … The joy of human love — brother, sister, parent, child — friends on earth and friends above … all gentle thoughts and mild.”
It is possible to go through life and miss all these things because we are too busy planning for the future. Anybody can sit and dream of the future, but to change the quality of a day — that takes an extraordinary person — and few things in life offer more satisfaction.
Le Baron Russell Briggs, well-known American educator and Harvard dean, was one of the wisest and most understanding of college deans. Of the many stories about him, here are two of my favorites:
He once called into his office a student who hadn’t been doing very well in his work. The boy gave Briggs a long list of excuses why he hadn’t done better. They were the kind of excuses we all have used when asked to explain our failures.
Briggs heard the boy out and then he looked him in the eye and said, “Jack, have you ever in your life done anything the best you could?” He had put his finger on the problem.
On another occasion, a student was called into Briggs’ office for failing to take an examination. His excuse was that he wasn’t feeling very well that day.
“Mr. Smith,” said Briggs, “did it ever occur to you that most of the work of the world is being done by people who aren’t feeling very well?”
To do the best we can — and to offer no excuses — may be the highest office to which we are called. And if we do that, the future will take care of itself. To change the quality of a day may not seem like a great challenge but it is really the greatest challenge of all. To help you keep this in mind, let me give you three truths to remember as you go through life: 1) There are greater things than greatness; 2) Little things mean a lot; 3) Someone is watching you.
To be continued …
(George Plagenz is a syndicated columnist.)