then not today

By way of Kathy, I just came across a blog entry titled "If Not On The Day I Die, Then Not Today". The entry's author, Evelyn, cites a commencement address that Steve Jobs gave last year.

I've read the transcribed address before, but this time I wondered, as I read Jobs urge his audience (emphasis mine) "You've got to find what you love," if, for me, the advice would also be "...and who you love."

I mean 'Who you love' in a way where 'Who' includes lovers as a strict subset, a 'Who' that's sized somewhere between a Boston marriage and Boston itself, more than just a couple but not a city full of seeming strangers.

But back to the valley, this afternoon, after borrowing a book on color theory from my P, I walked around on campus and saw chairs still stacked up from last weekend's commencement. I guess Tom Brokaw gave a talk -- googling now -- and told his audience to "live your convictions not just at the keyboard but on the streets, in the arena and in the polling place..."

"But [it is] also important to remember," Brokaw also said, "that it will do us little good to wire the world if we short-circuit our souls."

I think my mom would say something like that to me if she were Tom Brokaw (which she's not, as far as I can tell) and liked to lecture me (which she doesn't).

"So I invite you... to create your own legacy of greatness... to arrive each morning determined to hate hate..." (hmm) "...to become colorblind..." (let's not, please) "...to take a chance..."

In the past I have concluded these remarks by saying it’s easy to make a buck; it’s tough to make a difference. And then a father wrote to me and said, “I work on Wall Street. I have a rewriting of your phrase. It’s tough to make a buck; but if you make a lot of bucks, you can make a helluva difference.”

You decide. You can’t go wrong either way. Finally, the Class of 2006 at this great institution, I wish you Godspeed and Beat Cal.