10:50 pm - Tuesday, Jun. 01, 2004
Song:
Tonight I had to stand in front of the senior class at Baccalaureate. Nothing too big, only step one of this commencement process. I was asked to give a little reading of some sort of written art (ie. a piece of poetry or prose.)
I read the following:
Standing on the edge of a new land
Be ready to fall or fly.
Because we�re taxiing into take off.
And you�re flying. You�re flying because you know you can fly, because everyone can fly. That power is on the inside. That�s something not worth doubting.
This is not the time to doubt yourself.
Even the best fall down sometimes,
And we�re all risking tumbling.
And yet here we stand
Perched on the edge and staring down, ready for this leap and fly.
And that�s something
Step up and take the challenges.
This moment is yours to hold on to.
Cheesy I know,
we�ve all seen this before,
we�re right of passeging ourselves into the adult world.
Aren�t we proud?
We should be.
We�re beauty and knowledge. We�re taking over the world in swarms. We�re rainbows and rainfall on dusty hot days.
See, each of you is to change this world.
Everyone makes an impact; everyone takes the steps that settle themselves in the soil. Hold the world in your hand, poke in and indent.
No person can stand on this planet without moving the air around, without breezing into someone�s life in breath or love or simple hellos.
Everyone makes the move that spins the world in its
And maybe one day the earth was standing straight up, and someone sneezed and that is why it now tilts towards or away from our precious mother sun.
You aim to be that difference, and that is beauty and nice,
But there is the ugly side of every niceness, and there is the
person who tells you
you aren�t quite good enough
Taking that for truth is what will set you back.
Because there will be the words no, and you can�t and you�re too young, but those are simple words.
These are not truths,
these are walls.
Don�t let others talk you out of reaching for what you want in this life.
Because we�re all going to come up against those times, where everywhere we run feels like the wrong direction. Where each of our steps seems to be towards a wall.
But walls can be scaled, and life keeps moving on.
Stand here today and make the earth stand straight again for you.
Because maybe in this time,
when the earth stood straight and the stars floated in pools of water
and the rotation of this planet was slower, someone said something good, and the stars began to fly, and that one little sneeze sent the earth on its side.
The kind of tale where the very breath you sigh out now is changing lives around the world
Perhaps that sounds far fetched, and perhaps it is.
But that doesn�t mean you�re not changing the world,
that you�re not sitting here now with the cure or the power, the invention or the idea that�s going to make the world stand straight up once more.
So when they try to turn you away from your dreams, allow yourself to say no back.
Give enough love.
Don�t talk yourself out of being happy
Because a happy life is not a failed life
Be true to yourself.
Stand up tall.
Dare yourself to push further.
Take the losses with the wins, because you won�t win every battle. And winning isn�t first place at all when it�s hurting someone else.
It�s time for the power we have to begin it�s rotation,
it�s time for us to lead the radical revolution.
Here, before you fly.
Take that deep breath to blow out as you soar,
And together we�ll set the world spinning.