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+ | ====== 1986 Commencement Speech: John Powell, S.J., Professor of Theology, Loyola University ====== | ||
+ | **Source:** // | ||
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+ | Thank you very much, my brothers and sisters. I'm really honored to be asked to give the principal address at the graduation of the Class of 1986.
Of course I'm not worthy of this honor, but I'm going to fake it anyway. You see I suffer terribly from what's called an impostor complex. My only con- solation is that ancient Chinese proverb that goes, " | ||
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+ | On now to the more serious stuff. Recently, a study was made of one hundred persons, who were judged to be "most successful" | ||
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+ | The best guesses were quickly ruled out. Some had doctorate degrees; others had only a grade school education. Some had come from affluent families; others grew up in cold water flats. One interesting statistic is that 70 percent of the select group came from small towns, with populations under 15,000. Finally, when the study was almost completed, at last a common trait was isolated. Every single one of these hundred people was a committed “goodfinder.” | ||
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+ | By definition, “goodfinders” are people who look for and find what is good in themselves, in other people, in all the various circumstances and situations of life. " | ||
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+ | Today, in a very real sense, your own lives, dear graduates, are at a new beginning. You're going to go out into that "cold cruel world" you've been hearing all about. What are you going to find? What will you find in yourself as you are put to this new test? What will you find in the others whom you will meet? How will you react to the problems that will certainly arise in your lives? I think you will find whatever you have decided to look for. "Two men looked out from prison bars. One saw mud, the other stars." | ||
+ | " | ||
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+ | God is, of course, the original " | ||
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+ | When the crowd signaled " | ||
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+ | Our world today is a very sad world for many of its inhabitants. Thoreau once speculated that most of us "lead lives of quiet desperation." | ||
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+ | Recently I overheard two of my friends talking. One of them said that he heard that Alzheimer’s disease may be caused by the aluminum used in underarm deodorants. The other fellow shook his head glumly and said: " | ||
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+ | What God's world needs most of all right now is an abundance of " | ||
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+ | Of course, the first place you and I must begin looking for goodness and giftedness is in ourselves. And this is not always as easy as it sounds. You see when you and I came into this world we were little living questions: Who am I? Who are all these people? Is this a safe world or do people and
things break easily? What is life for? How did we get here and where are we headed? | ||
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+ | Even as we were asking all these questions our little mental computers
were all set to record the answers given to us. The messages we got are
still playing somewhere deep down inside us, and many of these messages have given us a healthy vision and a bedrock sense of values. However, Alfred Adler, the great psychiatrist, | ||
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+ | A couple of years ago, I was giving a weekend seminar and I asked all the participants to do the empty chair fantasy. I'm sure you've heard about it; but if you haven' | ||
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+ | About a year after I gave this weekend seminar, I got a letter from a young women who had participated. She reminded me that the brochure had advertised for people who are emotionally stable and in search of further growth. Then she added, "But I sneaked in. You see I've been a psychological cripple all of my life. I've had several breakdowns, spent three periods in a mental hospital. I tried suicide two or three times. | ||
+ | But I knew after that empty chair fantasy that my troubles were over." | ||
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+ | "You see when I came out and sat on that chair I looked like a whipped puppy, I was grimacing and wringing my hands. I looked like a person bracing for another beating. I honestly felt sorry for myself. And when we were supposed to speak to ourselves, all I could do was apologize. I said: ‘I'm really sorry all I've ever given you is grief. I've criticized everything that you've tried and when I've looked at your face in the mirror I've looked for the blemishes and not for the beauty. I looked for and I found everything that was flawed and ugly in you. I'm sorry. I've never been a friend to you.’ Then I promised myself that from that day on it would be different. In fact, I started out making a list of everything I liked about myself. If you really like yourself your going to be with someone you like 24 hours a day, and that's important. That day, in fact, was really the first day of the rest of my life." | ||
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+ | Her letter continued: “My life in the last year has been a complete reversal of my past history. For the first time I'm not seeing a psychiatrist or hiding behind one of my walls or masks. Most of my life I have lived locked in a prison of my own supposed ugliness. But now I've broken out: I'm free, free at last to be me. A year later, her father flew into Chicago to ask me: "Hey, what happened to my daughter? She's completely different." | ||
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+ | Now " | ||
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+ | I love you not only for what you are, but for what I am when I'm with you. I hope I love you not only for what you have made of yourself, but what your love has helped me to become. I love you for passing over all the foolish and the weak things that you couldn' | ||
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+ | Finally " | ||
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+ | Once I was driving a car along a busy freeway in Chicago when suddenly the car died. I mean that car really gave up its spirit; even the radio went off. So I edged over to the side of the freeway, the shoulder, and got out to survey the situation. I could feel pure panic rising in me and growing. I know nothing about cars except their color. I did know that a raised hood indicated trouble to passersby, so I tried to raise the hood. But the strong winds of the windy city almost blew the hood away. Then I tried to raise the trunk but that didn't work either. So I took out my neat little hankie to tie on the aerial only to discover that the aerial had been built into the windshield. | ||
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+ | On the side of the freeway as I looked down, there was a deep ravine with high grass and a fence at the bottom. After one look, I decided I would never risk that ravine; but as I looked out over the freeway in the other direction, | ||
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+ | Finally a young college student stopped and he asked me, "Can I help you?" I would mention which college he was from, except it wasn't a Jesuit institution. Anyway I dived into his car and I latched on the safety belt and said in a quavering voice: "Yes, you can help me." I confided my inner panic to him, but to no one else. You see, the sign I wear says: " | ||
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+ | Several weeks after this happened to me, a young lady who types for me came into my office an hour later than was anticipated. She apologized and explained that her car had died on her. I asked: "Where were you when it happened?" | ||
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+ | Then, wearing my father-confessor look I said: "Could I ask you a personal question? How did you feel when you were doing all of this?" And so
help me God, she smiled widely and said: " | ||
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+ | You, dear Class of 1986, you're going out into a world that really needs you. It needs you to touch it and transform it with new meaning and a new sense of value. You see, the world is something like a large department store. And sometime during the night of history, someone has crept into that store
and changed all the price tags. Realities that God has always held in the highest esteem have been devalued. Even human life is regarded by some as expendable. Material possessions, | ||
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+ | Above all, please believe that God has sent you into this world with a special message to deliver, a special song to sing, and a special act of love to bestow. No one else can speak your message for you, or sing your song or offer your act of love. These have been entrusted only to you. | ||
+ | Now, according to an old Jewish-Christian tradition, your message may be spoken, your song sung, your act of love to be delivered only to a few, or to all the folk in a small town, or to all the people in a big city, or even to all the people in the whole world. It all depends on God's unique plan for you with all your uniqueness. | ||
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+ | Please believe that you are fully equipped by God to do whatever He wants you to do. Whatever He has sent you into this world to do. You're fully equipped so don't waste your time and energy comparing yourself with others. You're the one and only you and you are sent into this world to do something that only you can do and that no one else can do. You are an " | ||
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+ | Look for and find the good in everyone and everything and love this world into life. We really need you. Speak out boldly this message that has been entrusted only to you and warm the world with your song. And brighten the darkness of our world with your love. Keep your hand in the hand of the Man and enjoy every moment of life that God gives you. | ||
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+ | Remember me as loving you. Bon Voyage! Go get 'um Class of '86! |