Commencement Address by Paul Hawken
Bill Ryerson of Population Media Center sent this out via his email listserv. I wanted to share as well. Get inspired and be proud and humbled by the work that you do and are getting prepared to do.
Paul Hawken’s Commencement Address to the Class of 2009 University of Portland, May 3rd, 2009. Paul Hawken is a renowned entrepreneur, visionary environmental activist, and author of many books, most recently Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming. He was presented with an honorary doctorate of humane letters by University president Father Bill Beauchamp, C.S.C., when he delivered this speech. See: http://www.up.edu/commencement/default.aspx?cid=9456&pid=3144
Excerpts:
“When I was invited to give this speech, I was asked if I could give a simple short talk that was ‘direct, naked, taut, honest, passionate, lean, shivering, startling, and graceful.’ No pressure there.”
“When asked if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: 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. What I see everywhere in the world are ordinary people willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in order to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world. The poet Adrienne Rich wrote, ‘So much has been destroyed I have cast my lot with those who, age after age, perversely, with no extraordinary power, reconstitute the world.’ There could be no better description. Humanity is coalescing. It is reconstituting the world, and the action is taking place in schoolrooms, farms, jungles, villages, campuses, companies, refuge camps, deserts, fisheries, and slums.”
And it continues and is worth the read.
Anna
Tags: inspiration
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