Link to commencement speech by Paul Hawken
Paul Hawken gave the commencement address for the University of Portland earlier this month, and it's making the rounds. I thought it was brilliant. Here's a link to the address.
Labels: climate change, environment, lifestyle stewardship
posted by David Creech |
2 Comments:
Wow! What an interesting and insightful speech. As a soon to be graduate and one who recently sat through several graduations at a few Universitys in my home state of Florida I appreciate the challenge presented in this speech to our generation.
I think that at the moment our generation might be looking at the issues of the world as cool and trendy things to be apart of and associate themselves with. That is all well and good if progress is being made to solve the injustices we see everyday. But imagine the possiblities if we were to start thinking about our world, our planet, in the ways that Paul Hawken mentioned in his speech.
"The living world is not 'out there'somewhere, but in your heart." My heart is ready to see the world in a new way. The way it was meant to be seen. I hope others will take this challenge and make a shift in their views too.
"The most unrealistic person in the world is the cynic, not the dreamer. Hope only makes sense when it doesn't make sense to be hopeful. " - Paul Hawken
Wow. Thank you.
As a fellow graduate of the class of 2009 I am incredibly thankful for these two lines. Before graduation my friends and I were told that when it comes to the job market we were graduating in the worst year of atleast the past decade. Economy, environment, lack of healthcare...all of these were worries on our graduation checklist. Hopes and dreams, however, they are what continued to push us to succeed, to look at the bigger picture, to see the stars. If it weren't for all of our hopes and dreams, there would be no future, but we didn't get our degrees for no reason. We are going into the Peace Corps and ELCA Global Mission. We are becoming teachers, diabetes educators, evironmental scientists and pastors. We volunteer at food banks, reduce our carbon footprints and buy organic milk.
It's nice to hear someone say that we can make a difference and that our hopes and dreams are valid. It's encouragement for a bright future.
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