I watched proudly as my eldest granddaughter graduated with honors from the University of Oregon. It was a deliriously joyful weekend, filled with parties, parades, and the usual commencement ceremonial rituals.
The commencement address is today’s secular sermon, and usually addresses themes like, endings and new beginnings, or what determines success in life. I was sitting in a huge arena, far from the stage, the marginal sound system, and found myself thinking about Steve Job’s’ moving commencement address at Stanford in 2005.
Jobs, the legendary founder of Apple and Pixar told the graduating class that speaking to them that day was the closest he’d ever been to a college graduation. He said he dropped out of college because he wasn’t learning what he wanted to know, and that experience taught him three most important things he believed were necessary to be happy and successful in life: 1. Trust your intuition 2. Love what you do 3. Live as if today was the last day of your life.
He told the graduates that last in the last year he’d been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Initially he was told he’d live 3-6 months, but after the tumor was biopsied and analyzed it turned out to be a rare type that was curable with surgery. It didn’t matter how much time he had left, the diagnosis woke him up to a new appreciation of the biological truth that our time on earth is limited. Don’t let other peoples opinions/predictions stop you from trusting your intuition and pursuing what brings you joy and meaning. Steve Jobs was not cured, he lived 6 more years after delivering that address and loved what he did every day.
I found myself reminiscing that 50 years ago, right about this time I graduated from medical school, and wondered am I doing what I love doing, Surely I love being surrounded by love in these families celebrations, and I want to bring the Clown Town Healing Fest to a city in America before my last breath. A city that understands the future of healthcare is shifting our focus from a model based on the intervention (diagnosing and treating diseases) to one based on predicting and preventing them.
This Fest is about how we heal better in community, by integrating a communities healing resources, and inspiring people to taking the necessary steps to live healthier lives. Gesundheit! Global Outreach (GO!) Clowns will soon launch a campaign to make this happen and I’m hoping you will help me spread the word.
Such events – your daughter’s graduation, Job’s diagnosis, your 50th year Medical School reunion – all have the chance to focus our attention on our limited longevity and what we want and need to do with the time remaining. I just had my 50th year high school reunion (blog available on request), where I was asked to do the memorial eulogy as many had died. Right before then, I wrote about writing my own eulogy. Before that is needed, I want to make much more progress in addressing that great danger for the future: climate change/instability and global warming/boiling. Some of that, I’m sure, can be done through humor and clowning.
Stevie
Carl, stay around awhile. Only you can do Schlagbytes
Russ
Totally wonderful! May clowning and joy prevail through the cities and streets of our lives.
Blessings and love
Thanks to you all Relatives, Stevie send me the blog and surely everything we do is done better with humor. Looking forward to clowning with you some day. Russ it’s been almost 50 years that we worked together in the IHS and your feedback is always a reminder of our connectedness. Sister Joyce you are always a source of joy. With love, :O)
I humbly suggest Boston as a town that understands that healing takes place in community. Consider bringing Clown Town Healing Fest to Cambridge or Boston. Boston is without a doubt a city that understands the future of healthcare and rewards predicting and preventing dis-ease. And by the way, it is a pleasure reading your Schlagbytes. Keep them coming. Thanks for the reminders of what is important in life.
Thanks Beth for your kind words and once the announcement comes out send it to a Boston/Cambridge city planner and have them get in touch with me. :O)
I was looking for Wave Energy and came across your Commencement Address « Schlagbytes page. My greatest concern is energy independence, unless we stop using dirty energy the world is going to be in dire danger.
We are surprised people are not looking at using more renewables like Marine Power similar to Florida based Crowd Energy. If we dont solve this problem today its going to get bad.
Thank you, Welters