I am sometimes asked why commencement speeches are usually terrible.
While there’s no single answer, I think the main reason is that the speakers so often act as if the occasion were all about them instead of about the graduates.
I’ve found that the best commencement speeches are those in which the speaker draws deeply on his or her own life experience to pass on a useful lesson or two to the young people trembling on the threshold of life – something that will be of real help them as they start their own careers.
Steve Jobs’ speech at Stanford last spring was marvelous in this respect, which is why it drew so many favorable reviews. Stephen Colbert’s speech at Knox College just a few days ago was in the same league.
Colbert is a comedian and satirist, who is perhaps best known for his roast of President Bush at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner at the end of April.
After delivering the liberal dose of humor that audiences expect when they invite a funnyman to be their speaker, Colbert gave the graduates a piece of advice that was both practical and profound -- he told them to say “yes” to life:
Say “yes.” In fact, say “yes” as often as you can. When I was starting out in Chicago, doing improvisational theatre with Second City and other places, there was really only one rule I was taught about improv. That was, “yes-and.” In this case, “yes-and” is a verb. To “yes-and.” I yes-and, you yes-and, he, she or it yes-ands. And yes-anding means that when you go onstage to improvise a scene with no script, you have no idea what’s going to happen, maybe with someone you’ve never met before. To build a scene, you have to accept. To build anything onstage, you have to accept what the other improviser initiates on stage ... You have to keep your eyes open when you do this. You have to be aware of what the other performer is offering you, so that you can agree and add to it. And through these agreements, you can improvise a scene or a one-act play. And because, by following each other’s lead, neither of you are really in control. It’s more of a mutual discovery than a solo adventure. What happens in a scene is often as much a surprise to you as it is to the audience.
Well, you are about to start the greatest improvisation of all. With no script. No idea what’s going to happen, often with people and places you have never seen before. And you are not in control. So say “yes.” And if you’re lucky, you’ll find people who will say “yes” back.
Now will saying “yes” get you in trouble at times? Will saying “yes” lead you to doing some foolish things? Yes it will. But don’t be afraid to be a fool. Remember, you cannot be both young and wise. Young people who pretend to be wise to the ways of the world are mostly just cynics. Cynicism masquerades as wisdom, but it is the farthest thing from it. Because cynics don’t learn anything. Because cynicism is a self-imposed blindness, a rejection of the world because we are afraid it will hurt us or disappoint us. Cynics always say no. But saying “yes” begins things. Saying “yes” is how things grow. Saying “yes” leads to knowledge. “Yes” is for young people. So for as long as you have the strength to, say “yes.”
And that’s The Word.
