毕业典礼 Address

May 22, 2006

by 格雷琴 Cryer

First let me say that it is a heady 经验 to be 站 here at 6,000 feet above sea level to deliver a 毕业典礼 address to people who have spent four years living in the 稀薄 大气 of 科罗拉多州 College. I know of no other college where 学生 relax from their 知识 追求 by 练习 walking the 钢丝, scaling a bare-faced 悬崖 a 千 feet in the air, or running up Pikes Peak for an 下午 jaunt. I admire the 喜欢冒险的 spirit - 物理 and 知识 - of you who attend this college, and I am 鼓励 that the world is going to be a much better place once you are launched out there making your 贡献. Maybe it's the fact that you wake up every morning with Pikes Peak over your 肩膀, with all that it 象征着 - majesty, 的挑战, danger, 的可能性, mystery, beauty - or perhaps it's because you have a 世界级的 总统 and faculty. 无论 the reason, somehow there has been a 美丽的 融合 of elements here that make 科罗拉多州 College an exciting place to be.

I am 激动 to be here, also 惊讶 and 吓坏了 that someone decided that I might have words of wisdom to impart that would help launch this senior class out into the world. For someone who feels she still doesn't hold the answer to any of the larger 问题 in life, this is an 极 令人生畏的 位置 to be in. So right up front I want to say that I'm not going to attempt to wrestle with any of the larger 问题 in life, like: "What is 存在?" or "What is reality?" or "What is 意识?". . I will simply start with a common 共识: we exist, the reality is you guys are about to 毕业, and we are all 有意识的 and will remain so if I don't go on too long.

实际上, I am here because of a strange set of 情况下 that were set in motion 25 years ago on a barrier reef outside New York City. A small blond 四岁的 boy, a 陌生人 to me, knocked on the door of my beach cottage one 早....， a little red bucket in his hand, 宣布 that his name was 斯蒂芬, and invited me to go pick 蓝莓 with him. His powers of 说服 were 强烈, it was the best offer I'd had all week, and so at 7 a.m. I found myself deep in the bushes picking 蓝莓 with a winsome 完整的 陌生人. By 8 a.m., our mouths stained purple from the 蓝莓 that never made it into the bucket, it was clear that in spite of our 40-year 区别 in ages, Stephen and I were kindred spirits. On 后续 days I 收到了 other 邀请. Stephen would show up every morning radiant with his new plans: Would I like to go play ball with him on the beach, build sand castles? Would I like to collect shells on the beach, look for sea glass? Would I ride with him to the store - I on my bicycle and he on his 三轮车? And five days into our 友谊 - would I like to come and meet his dad? . . . I must admit I was 很好奇, 思考 "Who in the world could have spawned this 异常 迷人, 聪明, 偏心 little boy?" So I 之后 Stephen down the path to another beach house, where he called out to his father, "Dad, I brought 格雷琴!" A very large man emerged from the beach house, came toward me 微笑, and 扩展 his hand. "I've heard a lot about you from Stephen. I'm Dick Celeste."

Which all goes to show that if you heed your 本能 and follow your heart and go 蓝莓 picking on a summer morning with a 四岁的 perfect 陌生人, 25 years later you may find 你自己 接收 an honorary degree and 交付 a 毕业典礼 address to an 非凡的 group of people.

And you are an 非凡的 group of people, born into a very 令人兴奋, 可怕的 time in the history of the planet. It's an 重要的 time to be alive - a time when 个人 actions can have 影响深远的 的后果, a time when 个人 can make a 区别 - for the good, or for the bad. Our 技术 have reached such a point in 授权 us that an 个人 person can press a button and change the course of history. It only took 19 guys to bring down the World Trade Center and hit the 五角大楼. 个人 have never before had the powers that we have today - for good or ill - so it is a time when people of good will and 意图, people who affirm life, MUST step up to the plate. We cannot be 孤立主义者. 孤立主义 is no longer a 可能性 or an option. We're at the tipping point in human 历史, a time when our 个人 决定 about the way we live will 确定 whether or not we 继续 to exist. We have been born at a point on the 时空 连续体 when the planet seems 固执的 on 自我毁灭 and so it is up to us - up to you - to create a new 范式. We have to think in new ways to turn this thing around. And I know of no better group of people to do 开创性的, 转型 思考 than you here today. In the three years that I have been 幸运的 enough to be asked to teach here I have been 深刻的印象 with the 活力 and 创意 of the 学生 and the 无限 潜在的 among you. In my brief stints here, 3 and 1/2 weeks each, I have known maybe 30 or 40 of you - a mere 抽样 - and I have been amazed at 转换 in my writing classes that I have seen. 学生 have found their own voices, have given 表达式 to their own 的故事, have been willing to share those 的故事, and have had the courage to come from their own 真实的 points of view, to let us see through their windows on the world. I have 瞥见 the 潜在的 for 原始 thought here, 真实的 表达式, and it is awesome. You are 冒险者, you are 冒险家, you can climb right up the face of sheer rock and somehow find a 手持 in a 看似 令人费解的 表面上看, you have the 耐力 to run to a summit 14,000 feet in the air and come back down and discuss Proust after lunch. You are the hope of the future and we need you.

Well, what is it exactly that we need you to do, now that I have charged you with the 宏伟的 task of saving the world? In the midst of 成千上万的人 of possible career choices, 成千上万的人 of possible 场景 for your lives, do I have some basic advice here? Well, yes. It has to do with a way of being that 超越了 all career choices. I think this is a time when we must all live as ARTISTS - in the broadest sense. Artists are people who start with nothing - a blank page, an empty space devoid of 运动, an empty canvas, silence - where a melody, a chord 进展, rhythms are as yet 未表达的. It's a point when there is only the 头疼的 urge. And there, at that point of verdant 虚无 where all is 无限 的可能性, artists reach inside 自己 and come up with 某物 new. They allow the life force to come through them and find unique 表达式.

My own passion in life has found 表达式 in the arts (mostly in the 剧院, writing and 执行 - a tiny tiny corner of 艺术 努力) and it is out of my 经验 in that world that I am 说话 today. My life in the arts has been a life of 不安全感, not knowing where your next job or project will be coming from, having to create your own next job or project - a 过山车 life of 难以置信的 highs and lows, a life not of 材料 wealth but the riches that come from doing 某物 that you love. That's where I'm coming from. I know that most of you out there are 可能 not 规划 to choose a 职业 in the arts, but I want to talk to you about living as an artist no matter what your 职业 - whether you choose to be a 生物工程, a 家庭主妇, a dancer, an 牙齿矫正医师, an 天体物理学家, a 鞋匠, a 参议员, or a horse trainer.
Being an artist in life means coming from your 真实的 self and being open to the urges that 激励 you and 允许 them to find 表达式 through you.

Albert 爱因斯坦 said that when he first 构思 the theory of 相对论 it came to him as a feeling in his chest. Just a feeling in his chest. An 头疼的 urge. He didn't know what it was. It had no form yet. And then after a while it 浮出水面 and he was able to 翻译 that feeling into 数学 terms next, and then finally into words. And it was a new idea. It came through him. He was an artist.

I want to share with you a quote from Martha Graham. As you know she was a pioneer in the dance world, someone who broke all 传统 and came up with a whole new 概念 of dance - the 的关系 of the body to the earth - that was a radical 离开 from 经典 ballet. And she was a thinker as well as a dancer. This is a famous quote that you no doubt have heard before. It is one that I keep on my desk and I read almost daily because I think it is so 重要的是:

"There is a 活力, a 生命力, an energy, a 加快 that is 翻译 through you into action and because there is only one of you in all time, this 表达式 is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your 业务 to 确定 how good it is nor how 有价值的 nor how it 比较 with other 表达式. It is your 业务 to keep it yours clearly and 直接 to keep the channel open."

In other words, you are unique and your 情况下 are unique, your point of view is unique. And if you block the life force that is coming through you, its 表达式 is forever lost to the world, to the human project. I love the idea that the life force comes through you, that you are a channel for new ideas, new 的作品, new 范例, because it exactly 反映了 my own 经验 as a writer. It's a very 神秘的 过程中, this matter of letting things come through you, sort of 神秘的 and magical. 有时 when we are 创建 - when the life force is coming through us - we 惊喜 我们自己. We didn't see it coming and we don't know where it came from. The last play I wrote was such an 经验: I had vague 萌芽 about what I wanted to write about, I knew who my 字符 were and I knew the 情况 I had put them in, but I hadn't the 轻微的 idea what they were going to do, how it was going to turn out. Every day when I got up to write I was so excited. I 不能 wait to see what was going to happen next. My 字符 took on a life of their own and played out their drama. I felt sort of like a 速记员, just taking down what they were saying: I was just along for the ride, and I was amazed at how it turned out.

有时 when I look back at things I have written in the past I think, "Did I write that? Where did that come from? Of course, there are times when I look back at old 涂鸦 I find at the bottom of a pile and I think, "God, did I write that?!! What was I 思考?! . . ."

Now, lest I start 听起来 头脑简单的 about this 通灵 stuff, I don't want to give you the 印象 that I think it's just a matter of sitting down one day with a feeling in your chest and out comes the theory of 相对论 or "Long Day's Journey Into Night." No, this 仪器 which gives 表达式 to the life force - your body and mind, your being - has to be 准备. Martha Graham says it takes about 10 years to make a mature dancer. Again I want to quote her:

"The 培训 is 双重的. There is the study and 实践 of the craft in order to 加强 the 肌肉发达的 结构 of the body. The body is shaped, 自律, 尊敬的, and, in time, trusted. . . Then there is the 培养 of the being. It is through this that the legends of the soul's journey are re-told with all their gaiety and their tragedy and the 苦 and 甜蜜 of living." The 培养 of your craft is what you've been doing here at 科罗拉多州 College and may 继续 beyond. We all know what the 培养 of your craft entails. 实践中, 实践中, 实践. Again from Martha Graham: "it is the 表演 of a 专用的 precise set of acts, 物理 and 知识分子, from which comes the shape of 的成就, a sense of one's being, a 满意度 of spirit. One becomes in some area an athlete of God."

So let's assume you have 准备好了, that you have learned your craft, you have it in your bones, you are an athlete of God. How do you keep the channel open so that new ideas can come through you, so that you can make your 贡献?

Well, first of all you need to be 操作 from your 真实的 self - not somebody else's idea of who you should be. Not your parents' idea, not 社会的 idea, not some media-created fantasy of who you should be. You need to 理解 that you have a right to be who you really are, with all your 的优势 and foibles. You have to own your own 的存在, your identity. 有时 it's really hard to be your 真实的 self in the face of the 预期 of others. You hate to 令人失望; the pressure is great. But what the world needs is you. The real you.

And the courage to be the real you means you have to own not only the 设备 you were born with, but the 情况下 of your life as well. Life throws 每个人都 a lot of curves, but those 情况下 become part of who you are, where you're coming from, what you know about. They are part of the unique 定义 of you. 富兰克林 Delano 罗斯福 简约 polio in his mid-30s just as his 政治 star was 开始 to rise. He was 瘫痪 from the waist down, was pretty much 关 to a 轮椅, could stand only with the help of steel braces on his legs and someone at his side. Still, 12 years later he was elected 总统 of the United States to an 前所未有的 four terms, wherein he pulled the country through the Great 抑郁症 and the Second World War - 表现出 all the while an amazing joie de vivre and a 同情 for the 受压迫的 that was no doubt 通知 by his own 条件. He 拥抱 his 情况下. More 最近, 克里斯多夫 Reeve, 瘫痪 from the neck down by a 脊髓 injury, 拥抱 his 情况下 and became a driving force in 研究 to heal 脊髓 injury, far 黯然失色 his career as a movie star. These 例子 are 极端, but the point is, you take what you've got and give it your best shot. You don't let your 情况下 block the channel. Your 情况下 and how you deal with them - that's part of who you are.

And then, when you're coming from your 真实的 self, giving 表达式 to the urges that 激励 you, doing your thing, you must not divert your energy by judging 你自己 or judging the worth of your 贡献 - 比较 the worth of your 贡献 to others' 贡献. If you start judging your effort while you're in the process of doing it, that will block your channel for sure. In my writing class - 创建 your Own Solo 表演 - I tell my 学生 to reach down into 自己, to write out of what they know, and to pull out moments that are vivid and alive to them, putting 自己 back into that moment and writing in the present tense from the 即时性 of that moment. But most 重要的是, I tell them not to censor 自己 or judge 自己 while they are doing it. They must not block 自己 while they are doing it. They must not be looking over their own 肩膀. After they've got it down, then they can go back and change and delete, but not while they are in the process of getting it down. You have to commit 你自己 to the 活动 at hand, stay in the moment, stay with the impulse or it will be lost. That's why I tell writers to carry a little 笔记本 around at all times. You may have a sudden 完形, a sudden 冲动, a moment of 清晰, a 基础垫层 flash of 洞察力, a moment when you 突然 know what you want to do or how to do it, and you have to be able to get it down. 有时 ideas 渗透 for weeks, months, years, and then 突然 一切 falls into place and you know how to give 表达式 to these heretofore-unformed ideas, these nascent 萌芽. 突然, it all comes 在一起 and you need to be able to seize the thing, get it down.

And to keep the channel open you have to do things 全部. You have to go for it - in life as in art. Again I'll use a dance image: If you're going to do a tour jete, you have to do it 全部. You cannot sort of do a tour jete or it's not a tour jete. 有时 when we are afraid to fail, we protect 我们自己 by not giving full effort, whatever it is we're doing. We figure that we don't want to look like we really want 某物， so we'll just sort of do it. We'll remain hip and cool and look like we don't care. Well, that's just like the sort-of tour jete. 无论 it is that you're just sort of trying to do is just not going to happen. For sure. Sort of doing 某物 is 自我破坏 of the grand order.

Now of course when you are 学习 your craft, or when you're trying 某物 new, your 表达式 may be 尴尬, 笨拙的. You may fall on your face. You may look 愚蠢, you may sound awful. And you have to be willing to do that. In order to keep the channel open and keep the flow going, you have to take risks, be willing to fail. Fall down six times, get up seven. It's part of the process. And the more you fall down and then get up, the more you will have 信心 that you can do that - take a risk, fall down, and then get up, and you'll be okay.

And while you're falling down and getting up, lest you be 气馁 and shut down the 频道, you have to be aware of your own rhythms - the ebb and flow of 创造力 that are also part of the natural process. When you are 摔跤 with an idea, things come in fits and starts. It's not all smooth sailing. 有时 when you feel most 封锁, that is the time before the big 突破. I have found in my own work when I have hit the wall, when I feel utterly 平凡的, when nothing at all is coming, when it feels really bad and I am 想知道 why in the world I ever thought I was a writer - that's good! That means 某物 is about to break. 东西的 coming through. And it usually does. So you must not despair if you reach an impasse. Let it be. Back off, clear your mind, go 实践 your 钢丝, hum a tune, take a bath. And 突然, when you least expect it, the 解决方案 will appear - the 完形, a new way of seeing things. And you better have your 笔记本 with you.

And finally, and 可能 most 重要的是, you have to love what you do or your 不满 will clog the channel and prevent the life force from flowing through you just as surely as the build-up of plaque in your arteries will impede the flow of your life's blood. We all know what it is to be around someone who is doing his or her right work. The love and passion they have for what they are doing is 显而易见的, and it 体现 in matters large and small. The passion itself is 传染: it lifts the spirits and 激发 everyone who 目击者 it, 鼓励 and 授权 them to do their own right work in matters large and small. The other day I passed a fire hydrant on the streets in upper 曼哈顿 that had been 一丝不苟地 painted by someone in shades of red and bronze and 茄子! It was a work of art and it took my breath away! It wasn't cute and it wasn't kitschy. It was just the 漂亮 fire hydrant I had ever seen. Somebody really cared! And I felt inspired.

最近 I saw the new 生产 of Stephen 桑德海姆的 “斯威尼 Todd." Of course I was in awe of the fact that all ten actors in the 生产 not only acted and sang an 令人难以置信的 困难 score, but they were also the 管弦乐队, each playing one or more 仪器 on stage as they enacted the piece. A 惊人的 tour de force. But the main thing that 沟通 itself to me - the thing I came away with - was the feeling that Stephen 桑德海姆 loves what he is doing. Behind that dark piece of work is the smile of someone who is at the top of his game and loving it.

I saw 巴克明斯特· Fuller when he was well into his 80s, 交付 a lecture shortly before he died. One would have never known that he was going to die soon. He burst onto the stage, talking a mile a minute, so excited about the concepts he was sharing with us that he could hardly contain himself. He spoke so fast I 不能 理解 half of what he was saying, but it didn't matter. I knew I could go home and read one of his books. The 重要的 thing for me was his passion. I was inspired being in the presence of someone who loved his work so much, who was excited by the ideas that had come through him. It made me want to go home and write a play.

You see, when you are coming from your 真实的 self and doing work that you love - no matter what it is - there is a ripple effect. It is 会传染的, 授权 other people to do the same. So as you look out onto the world, do not 折扣 or devalue your own efforts if they seem not to be 寻址 直接 the ills of the world in an 重要的 way. You may not be the one who finds the cure for cancer, solves the 问题 of global 变暖, charts a new 政治 方向 for this country. Yes, you might be that person, but if you are not, that's all right. You must simply do what you love, do your right work and do it well, keep the channel open and find your own 真实的 mode of 表达式, and your passion will 沟通 itself to other people and inspire them to do the same, and their passion will inspire someone else who 激发 someone else, and that may turn out to be the person who finds the cure for cancer, solves the 问题 of global 变暖, or charts a new 方向 for this country. The ripple effect is 指数. We're all in this 在一起.

So as you step out into the world today I urge you all to live as artists - no matter what your 职业 - first honing your craft, then coming from your own 真实的 point of view 无所畏惧, with joy and 激情, taking risks and letting the life force come through you. Keep the channel open. And may you all be 运动员 of God.