In springtime, every man’s fancy turns to love–and, in my case, to commencement speeches. I love reading them, listening to them, critiquing them, even the bad ones. I dream of marching with colleagues through a cheering thong of graduates, resplendent in flowing robes, and delivering a simple yet powerful address that brings the youthful crowd to its feet.
Well, it ain’t happening this year. I didn’t even get so much as a nibble from my toddler’s preschool. So I decided to share highlights from the commencement speech I would give, if I’m ever asked.
“To the graduates of the class of 2005: Probably many of you are thinking, ‘Why should I listen to this middle-aged, hair-challenged man whose abdomen has clearly seen better days?’ Because I want to give you a head start in learning something that it took me years to fully accept–that despite your best efforts, life will physically transform you. You will lose twenty pounds, only to find them reappear behind you. You will spend thousands of dollars to convince others that you are better-looking than you actually are. You will fail, because good looks, sad to say, are fleeting.
“You may choose to focus your life’s energy on your looks and on other transient things, like clothes or the techno gadget of the moment. Certainly our culture encourages this. But when you are staring fifty in the eye, as I am, you will have nothing to sustain you when it stares coldly, unblinkingly back at you.
“The alternative is to figure out, as I eventually did, that you can weather the physical transformation of life if you embrace the spiritual one. Spiritual transformation, unlike the physical, is not inevitable. It means living with integrity and accepting that you are merely a tiny part of an invisible web that connects every living thing. Your contribution to building that web will also build your character.
“I have two books on spiritual transformation to recommend to you. The first is a classic, The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Malcolm X came into this world as Malcolm Little and spent the first half of his life becoming a gangster. In prison, he converted to the Nation of Islam and ultimately became one of the most charismatic leaders America has ever produced. Thanks to Spike Lee’s film, most Americans know at least the bare outlines of that story. But less examined is Malcolm X’s spiritual journey, from the bigoted version of Islam practiced by many in this country to the authentic Islam of the Prophet Mohammed. He never became so comfortable with the spiritual status quo–which for him was the racially bastardized Nation of Islam teachings–that he could not question it and move beyond it when he had to in order to maintain his personal integrity.
“The other book is a new one, by New York Times Supreme Court correspondent Linda Greenhouse. In Becoming Justice Blackmun, Greenhouse traces Harry Blackmun’s Supreme Court career from Roe v. Wade until his retirement in the mid-nineties. For some of you, Blackmun’s majority opinion in Roe v. Wade makes him the anti-Christ. But look beyond that opinion and focus on his spiritual journey, so elegantly recounted by Greenhouse. Blackmun was appointed by Richard Nixon after two failed attempts to get a Southerner on the court. He was expected to, and initially did, vote in conservative tandem with fellow “Minnesota Twin” Warren Burger. Indeed, he came to the court a supporter, albeit a reluctant one, of capital punishment; he was also unwilling to concede, in Greenhouse’s words, that “official policies that discriminated on the basis of sex” were inherently unconstitutional.
“Once on the Supreme Court, he increasingly became persuaded that black and brown men were more likely than white ones to receive the ultimate punishment. In 1994, Blackmun, eighty-five years old and just months from retirement, wrote in one of his last dissents, a death penalty case: ‘From this day forward, I will no longer tinker with the machinery of death. I feel morally and intellectually obligated simply to concede that the death penalty experiment has failed.” Blackmun’s transformation went further when, in overruling gender-based juror elimination, he wrote that “gender, like race, is an unconstitutional proxy for juror competence.”
“Living with integrity, striving to learn from life’s character-building blows–these are not the easiest or most glamorous ways to spend your time on the planet. However, doing so means that when your looks go and your toys break, as they will, you will be left with something real and everlasting–your spiritual soul.
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