| Title | : | The World Is Waiting for You: Graduation Speeches to Live By from Activists, Writers, and Visionaries |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Kindle Edition |
| Number of Pages | : | 221 |
| Publication | : | First published April 1, 2015 |
“The voices of conformity speak so loudly. Don’t listen to them,” acclaimed author and award-winning journalist Anna Quindlen cautioned graduates of Grinnell College. Jazz virtuoso and educator Wynton Marsalis advised new Connecticut College alums not to worry about being on time, but rather to be in time—because “time is actually your friend. He don’t come back because he never goes away.” And renowned physician and humanitarian Paul Farmer revealed at the University of Delaware his remarkable discovery—the new disease Empathy Deficit Disorder—and assured the commencers it could be cured.
The prescient, fiery feminism of Gloria Steinem sits parallel to that of celebrated writer Ursula K. Le Guin, who asks, “What if I talked like a woman right here in public?” Nobelist and novelist Toni Morrison sagaciously ponders how people centuries from now will perceive our current times, and Pulitzer Prize winner Barbara Kingsolver asks those born into the Age of Irony to “imagine getting caught with your Optimism hanging out” and implores us always to act and speak the truth.
The World Is Waiting for You speaks to anyone who might take to heart the advice of Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards—“life as an activist, troublemaker, or agitator is a tremendous option and one I highly recommend”—and is the perfect gift for all who are ready to move their tassels to the left.
The World Is Waiting for You: Graduation Speeches to Live By from Activists, Writers, and Visionaries Reviews
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The earth is hiring - a must read
Page 7- "If we fear competing viewpoints, if we fail to state the unpopular, or to allow the unpopular or even the unacceptable to be heard because of some sense of plain-vanilla civility, it's not civility at all. It's the denigration of human capacity for thought, the suggestion that we are fragile flowers incapable of disagreement, argument, or civil intellectual combat. Open your mouths. Speak your piece. Fear not."
Page 7- "...the straight and narrow path that sometimes leads absolutely nowhere."
Page 8- "...when you were too young, too unformed, too fantastic to understand that you were supposed to take on the protective coloration of the expectations of those around you, when you were absolutely, certainly, unapologetically yourself. When you were not afriad of anything."
Page 10- "But it's not simply the obligation to live an examined life, to embrace each moment as though it might be the last. It's also to live each moment as though it might be the first. To throw your arms wide to the new, the unexplored, even to that of which you may be afraid."
Page 11- "I don't know" is one of the most exciting sentences in the English language, because in the right hands it suggests not ignorance but discovery."
Page 13- "As you now sit in full bloom of youth, invest the sweetness..."
Page 13- "Bask in the afterglow of good feeling as this day wears on and you end up sloshing through today's and tonight's..."
Page 17- "Because when you are "in" time, you can accept and experience a much larger slice of life as it unfolds. Instead of imposing your will on every situation, you focus on including everyone else, and just that little adjustment of attitude gives you the space to understand where and who you are."
Page 19- "...under the gloomy skies still possess an r eternal optimism unaffected by the passage of time."
Page 25- "The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. The most you can do is live inside that hope, running down its hallways, touching the walls on both sides."
Page 55- "I urge you, please don't settle for happiness. It's not good enough. Of course, you deserve its but if that is all you have in mind -happiness- I want to suggest to you that personal success devoid of meaningful, free of a steady commitment to social justice, that's more than a barren life; it is a trivial one. It's looking good instead of doing good."
Page 59- "Your life is already artful - waiting, just waiting, for you to make it art."
Page 82- "Remember, too, that the real value of a dark night of the soul is that it's maybe the surest way of ascertaining that you have one, a soul that is."
Page 87- "But hope isn't a choice, it's a moral obligation, it's a human obligation, it's an obligation to the cells in your body. Hope is a function of those cells; it's a bodily function the same as breathing and eating and sleeping. Hope is not naïve; hope grapples endlessly with despair. Real vivid powerful thunderclap hope, like the soul, is at home in darkness, is divided. But lose your hope and you lose your soul, and you don't want to do that, trust me. Even if you haven't got a soul, and who knows, you shouldn't be careless about it."
Page 89- "Night brings no gloom to the heart with its welcome shade. Through the transparent darkness the stars pour their almost spiritual rats. Man under them seems a young child, and his huge globe a toy. The cool night bathes the world as with a river, and prepares again for the crimson dawn. The mystery of nature was never more happily displayed."
Page 95- "Books are still the best ways to truly come close to understanding complexity in our very complex world. When we read, as my friend the brilliant Irish writer Colum McCann put it, we become alive in bodies not our own. It seems to me that we live in a world where it has become increasingly important to try and live in bodies not our own, to embrace empathy, to constantly be reminded that we share, with everybody in every part of the world, a common and equal humanity."
Page 102- "There's too much unnecessary suffering in the world. Go out and fix it."
Page 105- "Can a spark of empathy once ignited-however briefly, however tenuously- lead to reasoned decisions and to compassionate policies that might transform our world, including the precincts in which we live, into one in which there are fewer tragedies or less brutal echoes of them?"
Page 93- "Isn't this the most amazing air you've ever felt in your life?" she asked. "You can't tell where your skin stops and the rest of the world begins."
Page 97- "...and the happiness rolled out of him in waves."
Page 141- "...but he lived life like a flower with his head in the breeze. Stay open."
Pave 132- "And my best advice for those of you going out into the crazy, exciting world - don't fall in love right away. Don't get married. Get a backpack. A ticket to nowhere. Take a year off. Travel your ass off. Learn everything you can. Listen to the wind. It may cost you money not to work. But that year off is money. Time and experience is what will make your life rich. It's not going to make much difference in the end if you take your first job at twenty-one or twenty-four, as long as you grow, grow well. ...go out there no matter what happens - good day okay, bad day okay. Feel good about your effort and try to keep that smile on your face."
Page 144- "If you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren't pessimistic, you don't understand the data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren't optimistic, you haven't got a pulse."
The earth is hiring - great overall
Page 149- "Ralph Waldo Emerson once asked what we would do if the stars only came out once every thousand years. No one would sleep that night, of course. The world would create new religions overnight. We would be ecstatic, delirious, made rapturous by the glory of God. Instead, the stars come out every night and we watch television."
Page 172- "Life as an activist, troublemaker, agitator is a tremendous option and one I highly recommend."
Page 174- "...are the kinds of people who don't have to agree with someone to listen to their thoughts."
Page 178- "The answer to life is yes."
Page 180- "The world we live in can be tough. It can be unjust. But here's the great news: each of you has the power to do something about it. You get to build the world you want to live in. It's not about being perfect, having it all, doing it all. It's about getting started."
Page 191- "Hope does not come serendipitously. It is a choice."
Page 198- "Why did we look up for blessing - instead of around, and down? What hope we have lies there. Not in the sky full of orbiting spy-eyes and weaponry, but in the earth we have looked down upon. Not from above, but from below. Not in the light that blinds, but in the dark that nourishes, where human beings grow human souls." -
I loved these. I picked it up because the final speech was by Ursula Le Guin, but was captured by the others. I loved the messages of hope most of them contained. I copied down some of them to read on dark days. Marian Wright Edelman talked about how American society treats its children (badly); Wynton Marsalis talked about being "in time." Even though most were written before 2014, they are remarkably on point for today. Other contributors include Oliver Stone, Toni Morrison, Barbara Kingsolver, and Tony Kushner. Very worthwhile.
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This book provided me with hope and wisdom following graduating from college in a field of “what if’s” with a simple goal to “make the world a better place” by following my passion towards the environment. I especially loved “The Earth is Hiring” and recommend anyone struggling with finding hope and motivation to read these commencement speeches no matter what age you are or where you are in life. Very beautiful!
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Dígale no a comprar libros drogada o que sólo tientan por el título. No sé en qué universo paralelo se me ocurrió que esto podría ser interesante. Rotundo NO al género "graduation speeches".
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I loved this book of graduation speeches. So many different takes and advice for the younger generation from people who have been there and done that. Many inspirational testimonies, words of wisdom, and some laughs in there as well.
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The editors of this book have compiled words of wisdom from an eclectic group of people for an eclectic bunch of graduates. The activists, writers, visionaries, scientists, and musicians herein don't skirt the global issues of today, the stuff the media shouts from our televisions and newspapers and web pages, the scary stuff about the world heading down whatever dark alley it might be heading. They don't gloss over these issues—but they do expect a brighter tomorrow for these grads; they talk of empathy and meaningfulness and going the distance and shaping one's destiny. They talk of being "in" time, not "on" time. They talk of living inside hope. And the speakers themselves seem to be putting their hopes into the graduates before them—prodding, daring them to be courageous, to make their marks for the betterment of the planet, to make a difference in the lives of others.
Who are these wise speakers? Anna Quindlen and Wynton Marsalis and Barbara Kingsolver, to name a few. Toni Morrison, Tony Kushner, Paul Hawken and Usula K. Le Guinn to name others.
Within these pages the words are poetic and lyrical and humorous and honest, encouraging words to make this country smarter, this lifetime better, this moment fuller.
A thoughtful, inspiring gift for the grad in your life, or even for yourself; something to dip into when you need a nudge of encouragement or a bellowing "wake up and sing your song." -
A book club read for January, looking for inspiration. The speeches by Ursula K. LeGuin and Barbara Kingsolver are transcendent. The Tony Kushner speech reminded me that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
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A collection of speeches by very inspiring people, but not necessarily inspiring speakers/writers. The standouts were great (Wynton Marsalis and Tony Kushner were probably my favorites)- taken all together a very inspiring collection just not a particularly good "read".
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A collection of commencement addresses from recent years. Variety of colleges and speakers.
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Great speeches from diversified speakers.
