Walla Walla Commencement Address

June 9^th, 2002

Good morning.  Thank you for that kind introduction.  It is very special to be here this morning and join you on this wonderful occasion.  Looking out at the sea of faces assembled on this pavilion, I see proud parents and relatives, relieved faculty and staff, and distinguished guests.  But the faces that truly stand out—bright and shining and full of promise and relief—belong to the people we have gathered to honor: The graduates.

Learning about Walla Walla College over the last couple of months, it has become obvious what a unique and special place this truly is.  It is special not only because your education is rooted in faith.  Nor is it only because all the food served on campus is vegetarian (I may have to stop on the way home at “Outback Steakhouse”). 

What makes Walla Wall College special is the dedicated faculty and staff, tradition of excellence, commitment to the community, and you—the students.  Your hard work, perseverance, and support from family and friends have helped you to arrive at this moment.  Congratulations to each and every one of you.

It’s been challenging to decide what to say for this commencement address. The parents would like a speech that is somewhat sentimental. The faculty would prefer a speech that is substantive. And the graduates want a speech that is, well, short.  I will do my best to strike an appropriate balance between all three.

There’s a great story about Yale that seems fitting. Yale University doesn't have a commencement speaker. They make a very big thing of their baccalaureate service. The story is about a Bishop who decided he wanted to give his sermon based on the wonderful letters found in Y-A-L-E, just four letters.

Y, he said, stands for youth. He became so invigorated he spoke for a full 20 minutes on the subject of youth. A, he said, was for ambition. He took 20 minutes to talk about ambition. L was for loyalty, and that took another 30 minutes. And finally, he said E stands for enthusiasm, and he became so enthusiastic that he talked for another full 40 minutes.

And when he finally completed his sermon on the four letters of Yale, he walked down the steps and saw a student who was holding his head in his hands in a prayerful manner.  He said, "My son, I can see something that I've said has touched you in a very deep and profound way. Could you tell me exactly what it was that has moved you in this fashion?" The young man looked up at him and he said, "I'm just sitting here thanking God that I'm not graduating from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology."

So, graduates of Walla Walla College, you can rest easy that I will not begin my comments to you by attempting to find an inspiring word for every letter of this fine institution.  (Besides I’d likely just end up repeating myself—Walla Walla).  Just consider this omission my graduation gift.  

You may have noticed what appears to be a big omission in my introduction—where I received my college degree.  Well, that is because I have not (until today) received one.  From what I have seen in the years as I have been traveling down the road of life, although I have had good fortune, a degree could have removed some potholes and speed bumps from that road and made it a little bit of a smoother trip.  So, my experience of not having a college degree tells me that the achievement you celebrate today gives you a wonderful foundation to build on.   

You may have found many avenues of inspiration during your time here.  Something that has inspired me in my path of life is music.  In my work with young people this is one of my favorite activities to utilize.  It seemed like growing up in the fifties and the sixties everybody was quite involved in music, or at least rock music.  I loved it all; from Bach to rock.  There were great rock groups like “The Beatles” and “The Rolling Stones” of course. But also others like “Steppenwolf” and “Uriah Heep.” 

Because I did not have the privilege of obtaining a degree and was asked to speak to such an auspicious, educated gathering of people, I felt it important to at least read some of the classics and satisfy myself that I would feel a little more educated.  Hence, I went to the little library in my house and grabbed a copy of “David Copperfield.”  And right there I found how incredible education can be.  I learned that “Uriah Heep” was not just a rock band of the sixties, but a real character.  So was Steppenwolf.  And I suspect that at your age many of you had no idea that they were bands.  Isn’t education wonderful! 

This time of life is truly extraordinary.  And now you have the chance to go out and begin something that is all your own.  You can look at each other and quote from a singer with one of the most beautiful voices of all time, Karen Carpenter, “We’ve only just begun.”  This is your time to make your mark on the world!  

Let’s consider for a moment the lamplighter story.  I knew it when I was a kid in the fifties as another beautiful song that went, “He made the night a little brighter wherever he would go, the old lamplighter of long, long ago.” In actuality it came from a bit of history and literature that goes something like this—Some people come into our lives and quickly go: some stay for a while and leave footprints on our hearts and we’re never the same.  Sir Harry Lauder, the Scottish humorist and singer, loved to tell the story of the old lamplighter in the village where he lived as a boy:   

Each evening as dusk came, the old man would make his rounds with his ladder and his light.  He would put the ladder against the light post, climb up and light the lamp, step back down, pick up the ladder, and proceed to the next lamp.  ‘After a while,’ said Sir Harry, ‘he would be down the street and out of sight.  But I could always tell which way he had gone from the lamps he had lighted and the glow he left behind.’ 

Ladies and Gentlemen, life’s highest tribute would be to live in such a way as to deserve the words, ‘I could tell which way he went by the glow he left behind.’  

As you leave here you are setting off on the greatest adventure—life.  How will you take what you have learned and apply it to make the world a better place—or will you?  What shape will your life take?  Who will you touch?  Who will you impact and who will you help along the way?  What lamps will you light? You can’t know the answers to these questions.  But you must know that what you do in each moment is an opportunity to spread light and hope.  Every time you help another you will bring hope to the world.   

As you go forward from here, you will find so many chances to benefit your fellow men and women by taking what you have gained from your experiences and hard work as a student, and lighting flames wherever you pass by.  I encourage you to not hesitate to light a lantern because you think it will not make much difference.  The mighty Columbia River begins with a drop of rain, a melting snow flake, and builds to this magnificent wonder that lights our cities and irrigates the fields that grows the crops that feed the world.

Even though you have accomplished a great deal by getting to this incredibly important point in your life, I urge you not to wait for opportunities to come your way, but go out and find them.  Seek them out.  Get up early, stay up late, leave no stone unturned in your search for success and opportunities.   

You may hear one person bemoaning as they sit waiting for that special opportunity to show up, “Man I never get a break.  I am so unlucky.”  And you can hear the opposite kind of person, if you can slow them down for a minute, saying, “Man, it seems like the harder I work the luckier I get!”  You see—opportunities are not known to make house calls. 

With opportunity comes responsibility to others.  Now, we know that there at least two kinds of people in the world.  Those who walk into a room and say, “Here I am—look at me,” and those who walk into a room and say, “There you are!”  Those who recognize, respect and value others know that everyone is someone.  They rapidly achieve success in all that they do by genuinely caring for others.  They are the people who understand that “when you are all wrapped in yourself you’re in a very small package.” 

Our task is to make our lives stepping stones for the success of others.  Success in life comes from helping others achieve their goals.  Highly effective people learn early in life that when they help others achieve their goals, their own dreams come true. 

As you begin this chapter in your life, I’d like to offer you a few words of humble advice:

·       Risk more than others think is safe

·       Care more than others think is wise

·       Dream more than others think is practical

·       Expect more than others think is possible 

Then while you are setting the world on fire, remember the words of the poet Ralph Waldo Emerson, who said, “If you find your life is empty, try putting something into it…such as kindness.  Kindness is the language the blind can see and the deaf can hear.  You can never do a kindness too soon because you never know when it will be too late.”

Even though you have only just begun you can begin with knowing that your contributions to the world will not be small if you give them that extra bit of care.  Light a lamp wherever you go, and illuminate the places and people that you touch.  No flame is too small, and every moment is an opportunity.  

You have only just begun and now you will decide what you will do and where you will go with what you have learned, with the tools that you have been given, with your new gift of knowledge and the realization that you can succeed.  You just have!  Down the road twenty, thirty or forty years from now it is impossible to know what our world will look like.   

About forty years ago, John F. Kennedy said, “We will land a man on the moon by the end of the decade.”  Around the country, people said, “You’ve got to be kidding.  Land a man on the moon?”  At that time to do so was something unbelievable—incredible.  For many it was thought to be impossible.  I can imagine when Kennedy got back to his scientific advisors, that they collectively may have even paused and said, “Can we do this?”  Knowing Kennedy, I believe his response would have been, “Of course we can, this is America!”   

And we did.  America put a man on the moon.  Our goal to land a man on the moon included getting him back safely to earth, which at that time meant that only the space capsule could be recovered following a splash-down in the ocean.  We dreamed of and could only imagine returning a spacecraft to earth on a runway.  And I can remember, and still feel the lump in my throat, as I watched the first space shuttle safely land back on earth.  We dreamed it, imagined it, and the bright minds of America made it happen.   

And then somebody said “let’s put a probe on Mars,” and we did.  These are things people my age just dreamed of, we just imagined.  They were only found in movies, or like a scene from Flash Gordon.  Most of you may not even know who Flash Gordon was—but back then all that was just too futuristic to us.  Things that you see every day like transferring information from your palm pilot to a friend’s, or to a computer.  These were something like a transponder from Startrek—pretty cool, but to us not real.  Not possible. 

Think about it: John F. Kennedy said, “We will land a man on the moon by the end of the decade.”  And people thought it was impossible.  But he dreamed it, we all imagined it, and America did it.   

And now you begin the new, exciting and adventurous part of your life with all of these things that we only dreamed of. 

So, what’s next?  You dream it and ask, “Can we do it?”  Of course you can do it, you are incredible and this is America!  You are limited not by your ability, only by your imagination.   

So what about the dream of a world without war—why not world peace?  After September 11^th and the awful carnage and cowardice of the terrorists in the middle east and around the world, with India and Pakistan ready to blow each other apart and maniacs like Saddam Hussein in control of armies and arsenals, and Osama bin Laden still at large can we truly even have a world without war?  I believe that world peace is possible.  That is my dream.  And that dream is expressed well in this simple song, an old favorite of mine: 

Last night I had the strangest dream I ever dreamed before I dreamed the world had all agreed to put an end to war.  I dreamed there was a mighty room the room was filled with men And the papers they were signing said we never fight again And when the papers all were signed and a million copies made.  They all joined hands and bowed their heads and grateful prayers were prayed.  And the people on the streets below were dancing round and round.  And guns and swords and uniforms were scattered on the ground.  Last night I had the strangest dream I ever dreamed beforeI dreamed the world had all agreed to put an end to war. 

And what about a world without hunger?  What about a clean, safe, good home and a good job for all people, including those who suffer in third world countries?  Can we do it?  Can you do it?  I say, of course you can!  Because if you can dream it, you can do it.  You must do it!   

This is America and we’ve only just begun.  It is difficult to look out and see what might be twenty, thirty, forty years down the road.  But you can look at today, you can look at tomorrow, and you can light a lantern whenever possible.  Your efforts need not be so grand as bringing peace to the world or eliminating hunger, although please never ever quit striving for the ultimate goal of a better world for everyone.   

My friends, small efforts from the heart are where real changes begin.  At home in our own communities, among those we know and come across every day. 

In the work we do and lives we touch.  Along the way you can say thank you to a veteran, you can give extra food to the food bank, you can set aside time to coach or mentor a child, help paint the home or cut the grass of an elderly neighbor. 

Then when you get to that twenty or thirty or forty year reunion of Walla Walla College, you will look back down your road of life and see it well-lit and glowing.  And they will say of you, “They made the night a little brighter wherever they would go, just like the old lamplighters of long, long ago.”   

This is America and in America we’ve only just begun.  And I just hope I’m around for a long time to see the great things you will do.  Good luck and God bless!