SPEECH FOR A HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATE

A PARENT GIVES HIS SON SEVERAL WORDS OF INDISPENSABLE ADVICE

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Your art teachers think you a budding painter, though you shrug that off. That's O.K. But if you should become an artist, ignore the critics. Some precious few critics have an artist in them, but most are a desperate, shriveled lot who have found a way to touch art without making it. The half-nuts architect Roark in Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead is confronted by the critic who tried to destroy him. "Why don't you tell me what you think of me," says the critic. To which Roark responds, "I don't think of you."

If you find yourself in a fight, never strike first, but when you hit back, hit hard. Pick your time and place, and nuke 'em. Do not worry about making enemies. The right enemy will be a sign that you're growing up and that God loves you.

Eschew ideology. It leads to hysterics.

Avoid complaint. It only sours the puss, and things are not going to get better anyway.

Whatever you do in life, be sure to admire others who do it as well as or better than you. My trade of journalism is sodden these days with practitioners who seem incapable of admiring others or anything. It is a matter of creativity as much as truth. They do not know that generosity is creative.

A few endnotes: Vote, always vote. You'll feel a fool if you don't. Get a dog. You will not find that touching trust in a human face. Never say the following: "no-brainer," "no problem," "at this point in time" or "focus group."

Finally, arise early. Six o'clock occurs in the morning too. Take my word for it. And if you get up at 6 (5 is better), you can watch the sun struggle up into place. You will be grateful for the silent glory of that sight, as the sun, at once enlarging and moving farther away, becomes the sky it enlightens. I am thinking, of course, of you. Goodbye, my boy.

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