Honor’s Breakfast Remarks
December 15, 2007
Northern Michigan University

Two New Thoughts for Life 101
Dr. Leslie E. Wong
President

Good morning honor graduates, family and friends.  Also welcome to the many NMU alums in the audience.  A special good morning goes to NMU’s  Board of Trustees who are also with us.  And a special welcome to our commencement speaker and his family, Kevin Boyle.

Unlike a lot of speeches I give, these remarks at the Honors Breakfast require considerable thought on my part.  You are our best students and the record you leave behind is incredible.   The presidential message should be different for you because your responsibilities from now on are more complex and the expectations of you are certainly higher.  This president doesn’t want to sound too priggish and parental; the phrasing should appear presidential but I also have a small goal or two:  could I get you to have two thoughts you haven’t had before? Maybe one?  Reading about your accomplishments, your GPA’s and your involvement in school and community activities, you can understand my challenge.  Whatever I offer, better be effective.  Now remember, just two, I’ll settle for one knowing that Mr. Boyle’s speech will cause at least 5.

The kind of world you will be engaging will seem complex and forbidding.  And make no mistakes, it can be threatening and dangerous.  Much of that is exaggerated and much of our awareness is influenced by our ready access to nearly any news source on this planet.  I suspect that the amount of danger and pessimism one perceives is a function of the newspaper you read or the kind of television shows you watch (how many of you followed at least one reality show during your senior year?).  What gets lost in all this media shuffle and misdirection is the near absence of balanced and well thought out reporting.  This speech isn’t about the media.  What this does to your mind is my concern.  So I’ll get to my point quickly:  Your job is to ferret out the sensational and the risqué from the meaningful.  One of my mentors scolded me once for insisting on holding a position because the position seemed to be held by a number of scholars.  Her remark, “A dumb idea held by a million people, is still a dumb idea”.  I think she would believe that a dumb idea held by a million smart people, is still a dumb idea.  I don’t know if she was responsible for the bumper stickers that conveyed the same idea but you’ll notice, I haven’t forgotten her scolding.  Perhaps her greatest value to me was to take me aside after I had given a controversial speech that honestly 90% of the crowd didn’t want to hear.  I can still remember the topic:  I thought it more important for young people to be able to read, write and calculate than to feel good about themselves.  Self esteem was a bit overrated to me.  She whispered to me, “a good idea held by one, is power, stand strong”.   There are people who have changed the course of history by staying strong and staying true to a good idea.  Your job is to be able to distinguish the good from the dumb.  Thought one for this morning!

Now don’t be thinking, hey, that’s easy to do.  I know you will entertain many good ideas during your life.    But if you’re thinking it’s an easy thing to do, c’mon, your youthfulness is blinding you!  Being able to separate the good from the dumb is very difficult.  Separating the good from the bad is very different and the subject of a whole different speech.  But separating the good from the dumb does require that you become more aware of your own thought processes.  But there’s more and here is where I try for my second goal.

Now, I’m not proposing that I knew at my own graduation what was going on in my head.  There are times even now when I wished I was more aware of what was going on upstairs.  But every parent and person in my generation here today may join me in saying that we’re much better now at knowing the difference between a dumb idea and a good idea.  Why? practice, practice, practice.  You can’t just put the machine into idle.  Those good skills you’ve honed and refined here at NMU are meant to be used and used often.  Life offers a final exam each day, you have to study and practice continuously.  But it’s easier than you can imagine.  Here are a few recommendations:

• A sure, low risk way to practice is to read.  Read a lot, read often and read materials whose authors and positions differ from yours.  You may say, well, “heck that’s easy”.  Keep in mind that today, Americans read about 7 minutes a day.  Few have read a book cover to cover, nearly 20% of the American population would not be able to read this speech and sadly, the reading competency of Americans as a whole, continues to decline.  Now Phyllis, please plug your ears.  I’m thinking I might be the last American to own a digital television, but I started to think that not having a TV is a good idea.
• Second, understand that your education is now starting.  A university education was your sabbatical from real life.  Largely unaccountable, you’ve only completed the pre-requistes for life 101.  Your NMU education is a high set of prerequisites, and it should hold you in good stead.  But you’re an experienced learner right now and you should be one for the rest of your life.  Good ideas, as Einstein said, come to the prepared mind.  Bring those skills to your work, your home life, your personal life and your social life.  Self esteem comes from being competent.
• Learn and prepare yourself to act in behalf of others before you act in your own behalf.  I’m told that your generation is more narcissistic, more interested in your own self perspective, and more prone to seeing your education as a pathway to more money.  When you learn that money isn’t everything, it may be too late. But nothing keeps you more grounded in the practicalities of a meaningful life than recognizing that your productivity emanates from the collective effort of many.  My father, bless his soul, never got a chance to go to college but he did become a corporate officer.  His only advice to me when I left for college?  “Don’t make the secretaries mad at you”.  Others can certainly help you and believe me, they can take you down.
• Last, believe in the power of kindness.

Congratulations, this is a big day, it’s your day.  You’ve done well with the prerequisites.   Separate the good from the dumb; practice, practice, practice.  My best wishes to you.