To the graduating Class of 2016, as you are soon to leave high school, I offer this advice. Take what you need:
Wear sunscreen. It’s good advice I heard in a Baz Luhrman song.
“Youth is wasted on the young” 1 is a phrase you will one day understand, but only too late. You will wrinkle and gray, but know that youth is given in fair trade2 for the wisdom you earn over time.
Be someone who makes you happy. Don’t take yourself so seriously. You are your own worst critic and only you have to live with your decisions. Life is far more flexible than you imagine.
If you get cut, watch yourself bleed. Understand time is doing the same thing to you. We are water and dust breathed into life with an expiration date. Death is inevitable. Accept this. Live as though the Grim Reaper may knock on your door tomorrow. One day, he will.
Admire the pageantry of humanity but do not believe it. We all wear silly hats. Mortarboards, for example.
Armchair complaints do not leave your living room. People join causes if they have no because, so be cause3. Fight for justice, question, protest, criticize, write and read letters, poetry, songs, speeches, sermons or legislation. The arc of history tends toward justice but you must participate to change the world.
Vote wisely in the ballot box, at the cash register and with your presence. Money is ink on cotton and paper which people trade you for time4. It does not buy happiness; you must find that on your own.
Every day, do something artistic so that when you reach old age, you have a lifetime of beauty to remember5.
Watch sunsets prayerfully, to learn why we first worshipped the sun and the moon. Count the stars, knowing that some will die tonight and never shine again. Name constellations in your honor. Invent their mythologies.
Spellcheck. If language is incorrect, what is said is not what is meant and what must be done remains undone.
The world is just one big small town. Treat its residents accordingly. Serve your community selflessly and it will repay in kind. Your youth, friends, lovers, coworkers and neighbors all come and go. Family will bind you to your ancestry and is the only thing that survives you. You are the microphone of your ancestors.
Forgive your parents; they were young once, too. Where they failed, do not6. Raise children intelligently, you owe it to your grandparents.
Teach your daughters to be warriors and your sons to be artists. They will find their own path when the time comes. Love them regardless.
Be welcoming to strangers. Odin walks among us.
True friends will offer a lift when you’re stranded or a sofa for the night. Don’t overstay your welcome. Offer your own sofa. Build yourself an army so you have ground to go to.
Being hated your honesty is more honorable than being loved for your deception. Lies are hard to remember but the truth is easy to corroborate. Plagiarists always get caught, so cite your sources.
Do not fear evil, instead fear the indifference of good men9. Never be indifferent. Anonymity is for cowards, so always sign your name. Proudly and in ink.
Be kind to the flowers10. You are not of Adam, you are not of Eve, we are of the tree, we are apples11.
Send love letters, handwritten and in envelopes. Keep a box of all the love letters you receive. Attend weddings and funerals whenever possible. Ceremonies bind us to our history and remind us of our humanity.
Write poetry, even if it never leaves your notebook. If it does, proclaim it loudly from the stage.
It takes guts to say “goodbye,”12 “I’m sorry” and “I love you.” Be brave. Love like a brass section; love like brass knuckles13.
Words can kill, so use them wisely. Speak honestly and slow. Enunciate with conviction14. Your words will bind you when all else is lost.
Ask for advice from your elders. The best is offered free of charge. Take what you need and make a list. Change it whenever you change yourself15,16 and 17. When you are old, offer advice to any open ears. Some may forget it, others may ignore it, but a handful may take your best lines and repeat them in ages and ages hence.
The past is unchangeable, the future is unknowable18. You live in the moment between them19. Glory is fleeting but obscurity is forever. Become worth remembering.
Christopher Fox Graham
Managing Editor
1: From the French proverb, “Si jeunesse savait, si vieillesse pouvait”
2: Paraphrased from Frank Miller’s comic book “Sin City,” in which the dying Detective John Hartigan says of Nancy Callahan “An old man dies, a little girl lives. Fair trade.”
3: A paraphrased quote from Sedona outsider and folk art painter Brian Walker.
4: From slam poet Seth Walker
5: “… the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars,” Jack Kerouac, from “On the Road.”
6: “All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does, and that is his,” Oscar Wilde, from “The Importance of Being Ernest”
7: “I have no desire to prove anything by it. I have never used it as an outlet or a means of expressing myself. I just dance,” Fred Astaire, from “Steps in Time”.
8: Paraphrased from “If This Poem,” by the late Sedona poet Christopher Lane.
9: On March 13, 1964, 28-year-old Kitty Genovese was stabbed to death in Kew Gardens, Queens, New York. Despite 37 witnesses, no one called police, assuming someone else had. The New York Times condemned the witnesses in an editorial for their indifference to her murder.
10: From Flagstaff slam poet Jackson Morris, now teaching English in mainland China
11: From Sedona slam poet Evan Dissinger
12: From Flagstaff slam poet Ryan Brown, now teaching English in South Korea
13: From Sedona slam poet Claire Pearson
14: Paraphrased from New York slam poet Taylor Mali’s poem “Totally Like Whatever, You Know?”
18:
19: George Patton, Nellie Bly, Neil Armstrong, Georgia O’Keeffe, Samuel Clemens, Rosa Parks, Andrew Carnegie and Ella Fitzgerald were all young and foolish once. We know them for what they did.
To the graduating Class of 2016, as you are soon to leave high school, I offer this advice. Take what you need:
Wear sunscreen. It’s good advice I heard in a Baz Luhrman song.
“Youth is wasted on the young” 1 is a phrase you will one day understand, but only too late. You will wrinkle and gray, but know that youth is given in fair trade2 for the wisdom you earn over time.
Be someone who makes you happy. Don’t take yourself so seriously. You are your own worst critic and only you have to live with your decisions. Life is far more flexible than you imagine.
If you get cut, watch yourself bleed. Understand time is doing the same thing to you. We are water and dust breathed into life with an expiration date. Death is inevitable. Accept this. Live as though the Grim Reaper may knock on your door tomorrow. One day, he will.
Admire the pageantry of humanity but do not believe it. We all wear silly hats. Mortarboards, for example.
Armchair complaints do not leave your living room. People join causes if they have no because, so be cause3. Fight for justice, question, protest, criticize, write and read letters, poetry, songs, speeches, sermons or legislation. The arc of history tends toward justice but you must participate to change the world.
Vote wisely in the ballot box, at the cash register and with your presence. Money is ink on cotton and paper which people trade you for time4. It does not buy happiness; you must find that on your own.
Every day, do something artistic so that when you reach old age, you have a lifetime of beauty to remember5.
Watch sunsets prayerfully, to learn why we first worshipped the sun and the moon. Count the stars, knowing that some will die tonight and never shine again. Name constellations in your honor. Invent their mythologies.
Spellcheck. If language is incorrect, what is said is not what is meant and what must be done remains undone.
The world is just one big small town. Treat its residents accordingly. Serve your community selflessly and it will repay in kind. Your youth, friends, lovers, coworkers and neighbors all come and go. Family will bind you to your ancestry and is the only thing that survives you. You are the microphone of your ancestors.
Forgive your parents; they were young once, too. Where they failed, do not6. Raise children intelligently, you owe it to your grandparents.
Teach your daughters to be warriors and your sons to be artists. They will find their own path when the time comes. Love them regardless.
Be welcoming to strangers. Odin walks among us.
True friends will offer a lift when you’re stranded or a sofa for the night. Don’t overstay your welcome. Offer your own sofa. Build yourself an army so you have ground to go to.
Being hated your honesty is more honorable than being loved for your deception. Lies are hard to remember but the truth is easy to corroborate. Plagiarists always get caught, so cite your sources.
Do not fear evil, instead fear the indifference of good men9. Never be indifferent. Anonymity is for cowards, so always sign your name. Proudly and in ink.
Be kind to the flowers10. You are not of Adam, you are not of Eve, we are of the tree, we are apples11.
Send love letters, handwritten and in envelopes. Keep a box of all the love letters you receive. Attend weddings and funerals whenever possible. Ceremonies bind us to our history and remind us of our humanity.
Write poetry, even if it never leaves your notebook. If it does, proclaim it loudly from the stage.
It takes guts to say “goodbye,”12 “I’m sorry” and “I love you.” Be brave. Love like a brass section; love like brass knuckles13.
Words can kill, so use them wisely. Speak honestly and slow. Enunciate with conviction14. Your words will bind you when all else is lost.
Ask for advice from your elders. The best is offered free of charge. Take what you need and make a list. Change it whenever you change yourself15,16 and 17. When you are old, offer advice to any open ears. Some may forget it, others may ignore it, but a handful may take your best lines and repeat them in ages and ages hence.
The past is unchangeable, the future is unknowable18. You live in the moment between them19. Glory is fleeting but obscurity is forever. Become worth remembering.
Christopher Fox Graham
Managing Editor
1: From the French proverb, “Si jeunesse savait, si vieillesse pouvait”
2: Paraphrased from Frank Miller’s comic book “Sin City,” in which the dying Detective John Hartigan says of Nancy Callahan “An old man dies, a little girl lives. Fair trade.”
3: A paraphrased quote from Sedona outsider and folk art painter Brian Walker.
4: From slam poet Seth Walker
5: “… the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars,” Jack Kerouac, from “On the Road.”
6: “All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does, and that is his,” Oscar Wilde, from “The Importance of Being Ernest”
7: “I have no desire to prove anything by it. I have never used it as an outlet or a means of expressing myself. I just dance,” Fred Astaire, from “Steps in Time”.
8: Paraphrased from “If This Poem,” by the late Sedona poet Christopher Lane.
9: On March 13, 1964, 28-year-old Kitty Genovese was stabbed to death in Kew Gardens, Queens, New York. Despite 37 witnesses, no one called police, assuming someone else had. The New York Times condemned the witnesses in an editorial for their indifference to her murder.
10: From Flagstaff slam poet Jackson Morris, now teaching English in mainland China
11: From Sedona slam poet Evan Dissinger
12: From Flagstaff slam poet Ryan Brown, now teaching English in South Korea
13: From Sedona slam poet Claire Pearson
14: Paraphrased from New York slam poet Taylor Mali’s poem “Totally Like Whatever, You Know?”
18:
19: George Patton, Nellie Bly, Neil Armstrong, Georgia O’Keeffe, Samuel Clemens, Rosa Parks, Andrew Carnegie and Ella Fitzgerald were all young and foolish once. We know them for what they did.
