Drew Faust talk on Unscripted Life from Harvard Commencement

“By ancient and curious custom,” President Drew Faust told the graduating class of 2010 in her May 25 Baccalaureate address, “it falls to me to offer you a final sermon before you go.” Speaking from experience shared with the class—of grand plans rethought in the aftermath of “the biggest meltdown of world financial systems since the Great Depression”—Faust recounted the lesson learned: “Life never follows a script.” (Read the text of Faust’s address here.)

“We didn’t have to melt down the roof of Harvard Hall into bullets—as we did in 1775; but we did curtail plans,” Faust told the class, suggesting that the crisis is part of their education, that upheavals teach lessons.

“The first is about humility,” she said. “We have been forcefully reminded that we cannot control or even predict the future or what it will require of us…. The unforeseen events of the past two years have forced us to imagine the world differently; they have demanded that we adapt, and throw away the script we thought we were following. And they have reminded us once again of the value of the liberal arts, which are designed to prepare us for life without a script—for a life with any script.” The second lesson? “Embrace risk…Don’t settle for plan B until you have tried plan A,” Faust urged. Then, echoing a message that Bill Gates delivered on a visit a few weeks earlier, Faust said the third lesson is that “The world really needs you”—a lesson the class seems already to have absorbed, she added: “Nearly 20 percent of you applied for Teach for America—far more than at our peer institutions, and the largest percentage of any school class in the history of the organization.” And finally, Faust told her audience, the fourth lesson is that “living in a world without a script demands and rewards creativity.”

The address was full of historical references, but also touched with humor on current events. As freshmen, “Your accomplishments were legion….At least you said they were,” Faust joked, alluding to the widely reported story of a student admitted under false pretenses.

Faust went on to recount a few of the class’s notable accomplishments: the startup of an NGO that built a school for girls in Afghanistan; the creation of a senior-thesis film selected for screening at Cannes; the establishment of a sustainable water-supply system for a rural community in Ghana.

The service, a Harvard tradition since the seventeenth century, also included remarks from the Reverend Peter J. Gomes, Plummer professor of Christian morals and Pusey minister in the Memorial Church. It included readings from the Analects of Confucius, the Hebrew Bible, Hindu Scripture, the Holy Quran, and the New Testament.

As Gomes’s message in the program said, “The occasion is both joyful and solemn, intimate and public, filled with the exuberance of youth and sustained by venerable and weighty tradition.”

What the Years Get You

I'm staying with a friend at her apartment while on a business assignment away from home. She has two cats and a dog that I have come to know and look forward to petting when I get here. The guest room is familiar and inviting. She always has a few things on hand because she knows I enjoy them... like late night chocolate and seasonal berries for breakfast.
What I love about a friendship that has grown over years has been described by a poet in a line I vaguely recall as 'the unexpressible comfort'. We know how to say, Do you want some of this, are you done with your plate, what else do you need, without having to wonder whether we are overly imposing or being a 'good host.'
Both are committed to each other's happiness and comfort, and both are empathetic about life's imperfections and our own rambling paths.

We can have a light conversation or a deeper one. We can create separate apace in the apartment so she can get rest while I am on an earlier time zone. She can tell me what's important about locking the door or turning off lights so I can come and go. We can share understanding about the people and situations in our lives. We look forward to seeing each other and have a good time.

This is not rocket science, this is not fireworks or life-changing like falling in love. It is also not the same comfort I had with many friends when there were many friends around in the full press of adulthood. It is knowing who has stuck, who will accept me because they have done so, who holds a similar loyalty to me that I hold to them. It's not many people, it's not acquaintances. In addition to the friend I am visiting now, it's the few people with whom I will make plans and go visit or enthusiastically host.

It is a little bit of a surprise who my close friends are now, compared to the people with whom I spent many hours and passages assuming it would continue indefinitely. A few have stayed and we're easy.

This is what long term friendship turns out to be. A treasure that cannot be found except through the span of time.

59 years, 364 days so far

Having been here for just shy of 60 years, I have learned a couple of things.

What goes around truly does come around. Just because it feels good to do good.

Friends and gratitude bring you everything else.

No one else can answer your questions.

Traveling to distant places is worth it.

Be still and breathe. Spend time with yourself.

Don't believe the naysayers.

You are loved more than you know.