one day in 1819, 3,000 miles off the coast of chile, in one of the most remote regions of the pacific ocean, 20 american sailors watched their ship flood with seawater. heyd been struck by a sperm whale, which had ripped a catastrophic hole in the ships hull. as their ship began to sink beneath the swells, the men huddled together inthree small whaleboats.these men were 10,000 miles from home, more than 1,000 miles from the nearest scrap of land. in their small boats, they carried only rudimentary navigational equipment and limited supplies of food and water.these were the men of the whaleship essex, whose story would later inspire parts of moby dick.we know how fear feels, but im not sure we spend enough time thinking about what our fears mean.as we grow up, were often encouraged to think of fear as a weakness, just another childish thing to discard like baby teeth or roller skates.
And life as a disabled person is actually somewhat difficult. We do overcome some things. But the things that we're overcoming are not the things that you think they are. They are not things to do with our bodies. I use the term "disabled people" quite deliberately, because I subscribe to what's called the social model of disability, which tells us that we are more disabled by the society that we live in than by our bodies and our diagnoses. So I have lived in this body a long time. I'm quite fond of it. It does the things that I need it to do, and I've learned to use it to the best of its capacity just as you have, and that's the thing about those kids in those pictures as well. They're not doing anything out of the ordinary. They are just using their bodies to the best of their capacity. So is it really fair to objectify them in the way that we do, to share those images? People, when they say, "You're an inspiration," they mean it as a compliment. And I know why it happens. It's because of the lie, it's because we've been sold this lie that disability makes you exceptional. And it honestly doesn't.
first, i want to ask you a question; what does family mean someone told me: it means father and mother, i love you.
today i am very happy to stand here to express my opinion to my dear parents. first, i want to say thank you to my mom and dady .without you, i would not enjoy such a colorful life. you both love me for ever and never leave me alone when i was in trouble. thank you. mom and dady, thank you. when i was in my hard time, you are my tender sunshine which encourages me to hold on and never give up. and now i am too excited .i dont know how to express my true feeling with limited words. what i know is that without you my life will be filled with endless suffering and mistake .
thank you!
I encourage you to look up the scene on YouTube – but not right now – because it’s still a very funny piece. And it’s funny because it’s ridiculous, but also because it contains a kernel of truth. And the truth applies not only to college presidents, but to all of us.
How many times have we decided we’re against an idea before we’ve even heard it? How guilty are we of deciding “I’m against it” without even knowing what “it” is?
Many times, we know what we’re against based on who is saying it. If an idea comes from a certain public figure, politician, or media outlet, we already know how we feel. Partly this is because our public discourse has become so predictable. We’ve lost the capacity for surprise, for revelation.
Speaking of predictable, here is the moment where an ambassador of an older generation – that would be me – tells millennials – most of you – about the evils of social media! But hear me out…
Obviously, social media has transformed our lives and our relationships. It obviously has many advantages, allowing us to share news and information quickly with people around the world. But it also heightens our sense of outrage and speeds up arguments, depriving us of the time and space for careful reflection.
Bombarded with notifications, pressured to respond before the media cycle turns over, we tap out our position – our opposition – in seconds. It’s easy to be against something in fewer than 280 characters. It’s far more difficult to articulate what you are for – and to do it at warp speed.
And I use the term porn deliberately, because they objectify one group of people for the benefit of another group of people. So in this case, we're objectifying disabled people for the benefit of nondisabled people. The purpose of these images is to inspire you, to motivate you, so that we can look at them and think, "Well, however bad my life is, it could be worse. I could be that person."But what if you are that person? I've lost count of the number of times that I've been approached by strangers wanting to tell me that they think I'm brave or inspirational, and this was long before my work had any kind of public profile. They were just kind of congratulating me for managing to get up in the morning and remember my own name. (Laughter) And it is objectifying. These images,those images objectify disabled people for the benefit of nondisabled people.They are there so that you can look at them and think that things aren't so bad for you, to put your worries into perspective.
first, i want to ask you a question; what does family mean someone told me: it means father and mother, i love you.
today i am very happy to stand here to express my opinion to my dear parents. first, i want to say thank you to my mom and dady .without you, i would not enjoy such a colorful life. you both love me for ever and never leave me alone when i was in trouble. thank you. mom and dady, thank you. when i was in my hard time, you are my tender sunshine which encourages me to hold on and never give up. and now i am too excited .i dont know how to express my true feeling with limited words. what i know is that without you my life will be filled with endless suffering and mistake .
it’s a very intresting topic today.
Actually, I have wracked my mind and heart for what I ought to say to you today. I have asked myself what I wish I had known at my own graduation, and what important lessons I have learned in the 21 years that have expired between that day and this.
I have come up with two answers. On this wonderful day when we are gathered together to celebrate your academic success, I have decided to talk to you about the benefits of failure. And as you stand on the threshold of what is sometimes called ‘real life’, I want to extol the crucial importance of imagination.
These may seem quixotic or paradoxical choices, but please bear with me.
Looking back at the 21-year-old that I was at graduation, is a slightly uncomfortable experience for the 42-year-old that she has become. Half my lifetime ago, I was striking an uneasy balance between the ambition I had for myself, and what those closest to me expected of me.
Well, ladies and gentlemen, I'm afraid I'm going to disappoint you dramatically. I am not here to inspire you. I am here to tell you that we have been lied to about disability. Yeah, we've been sold the lie that disability is a Bad Thing, capital B, capital T. It's a bad thing, and to live with a disability makes you exceptional. It's not a bad thing, and it doesn't make you exceptional. And in the past few years, we've been able to propagate this lie even further via social media. You may have seen images like this one: "The only disability in life is a bad attitude." Or this one: "Your excuse is invalid." Indeed. Or this one: "Before you quit, try!" These are just a couple of examples, but there are a lot of these images out there. You know, you might have seen the one, the little girl with no hands drawing a picture with a pencil held in her mouth. You might have seen a child running on carbon fiber prosthetic legs. And these images, there are lots of them out there, they are what we call inspiration porn. (Laughter)
Hello everybody!Outstanding during the period in school, eager to have its own personality, strong teamwork spirit, but also no lack of independence, the ability to accept new things, but dedicated Lok Kwan, in a certain professional ability to innovate.
I am a person who loves design, believe the design will be in his future career, I also believe that they will have a designer should be the quality because I am a motivated person, I will work hard and aggressive! Although I do not have much social experience, but I will redouble our efforts to make up our deficiencies, I believe that life will not be a moment of a particular cell, but the extent depends on their struggle, is an adherent of the study, self-improving process!
I am a girl from Shandong Yantai, I think people should have nothing exciting life tends to level customs, and should have their own pursuits, the courage to challenge the limits of life, because I believe in the potential is very large , will only play a certain pressure, so I would prefer a greater competitive pressure for me the environment to life! This life is a positive, happy! This is the life of the rich! I have been in all aspects of the University of enriched themselves as outstanding, I was fortunate to have chosen our city planning department, as my mentor, in the past two years, I have to follow the instructors have done a lot of projects, including program design, graphics, etc. , with better graphics operation ability, and all aspects of my design thi#from
ennkingdivergent, thus, also trained me to do something serious and responsible, pragmatic fine style, our work has always been to create a harmonious home man, I would like to do work attitude is very important!Thank you!
I grew up in a very small country town in Victoria. I had a very normal, low-key kind of upbringing. I went to school, I hung out with my friends, I fought with my younger sisters. It was all very normal. And when I was 15, a member of my local community approached my parents and wanted to nominate me for a community achievement award. And my parents said, "Hm, that's really nice, but there's kind of one glaring problem with that. She hasn't actually achieved anything."And they were right, you know. I went to school, I got good marks, I had a very low-key after school job in my mum's hairdressing salon, and I spent a lot of time watching "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Dawson's Creek." Yeah, I know. What a contradiction. But they were right, you know. I wasn't doing anything that was out of the ordinary at all. I wasn't doing anything that could be considered an achievement if you took disability out of the equation.
Years later, I was on my second teaching round in a Melbourne high school, and I was about 20 minutes into a year 11 legal studies class when this boy put up his hand and said, "Hey miss, when are you going to start doing your speech?" And I said, "What speech?" You know, I'd been talking them about defamation law for a good 20 minutes. And he said, "You know, like, your motivational speaking. You know, when people in wheelchairs come to school, they usually say, like, inspirational stuff?" "It's usually in the big hall." And that's when it dawned on me: This kid had only ever experienced disabled
people as objects of inspiration. We are not, to this kid -- and it's not his fault, I mean, that's true for many of us. For lots of us, disabled people are not our teachers or our doctors or our manicurists. We're not real people. We are there to inspire. And in fact, I am sitting on this stage looking like I do in this wheelchair, and you are probably kind of expecting me to inspire you. Right? (Laughter) Yeah.
Who rrivd h plc ll blon o ysrdy. Evn if h mounins rn in h wr o show h wr in nlnss. Too dp linr bcm frs rip ovr no only hv wo f nd in h fuur.
How cn you don' lik o sr? I is piy h hvn' sn on lofy mounins; S h lofy mounins nd hv no sn h s vs is sill piy; S h vsnss of h s hv nvr sn vs dsr sill sd; S h vs dsr hv no sn h mysry of fors or rr. Thr r lo of scnry in h world I hv no old.
I know dshn is rocky h s wvs h dsr snd fors hv bs of pry. Evn so I sill lik i.
Brk h pc of lif is nohr scn. Gld I hvn' old. Wh bou vn old no words clld hl nd hry?
So I would lso lik o lrn from h mounin I lso wn o lrn from h brv I lso wn o lrn from h dsr I lso wn o lrn from h fors lr. I wn o lrn o s colorful lif.
How fr on cn o? This is no o sk wo f bu sk mbiion; Mn cn climb much hihr? This hin is no o sk his hnds bu skd will. So I wn o us h youh blood ris lofy ols for yourslf. Is no only o win lorious bu lso in pursui of kind of s. Gols is lorious ol no lif will b bcus of h wind nd rin ll h wy wlk bcoms rich nd colorful; In my opinion his is no o lif.
Ys I lik o sr I wish you lso lik i.
In lif ofn hv numrous blow from ousid bu wh ffc will hs blows o you h finl sy in your hnds.
What I feared most for myself at your age was not poverty, but failure.
At your age, in spite of a distinct lack of motivation at university, where I had spent far too long in the coffee bar writing stories, and far too little time at lectures, I had a knack for passing examinations, and that, for years, had been the measure of success in my life and that of my peers.
I am not dull enough to suppose that because you are young, gifted and well-educated, you have never known hardship or heartbreak. Talent and intelligence never yet inoculated anyone against the caprice of the Fates, and I do not for a moment suppose that everyone here has enjoyed an existence of unruffled privilege and contentment.
However, the fact that you are graduating from Harvard suggests that you are not very well-acquainted with failure. You might be driven by a fear of failure quite as much as a desire for success. Indeed, your conception of failure might not be too far from the average person’s idea of success, so high have you already flown.
Ultimately, we all have to decide for ourselves what constitutes failure, but the world is quite eager to give you a set of criteria if you let it. So I think it fair to say that by any conventional measure, a mere seven years after my graduation day, I had failed on an epic scale. An exceptionally short-lived marriage had imploded, and I was jobless, a lone parent, and as poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain, without being homeless. The fears that my parents had had for me, and that I had had for myself, had both come to pass, and by every usual standard, I was the biggest failure I knew.
in a recent mimicking study at the university of clermont-ferrand in france, subjects were asked to determine whether a smile was real or fake while holding a pencil in their mouth to repress smiling muscles. without the pencil, subjects were excellent judges, but with the pencil in their mouth, when they could not mimic the smile they saw, their judgment was impaired.in addition to theorizing on evolution in the origin of species, charles darwin also wrote the facial feedback response theory. his theory states that the act of smiling itself actually makes us feel better -- rather than smiling being merely a result of feeling good. in his study, darwin actually cited a french neurologist, guillaume duchenne, who used electric jolts to facial muscles to induce and stimulate smiles. please, dont try this at home.
On Monday, tomorrow, during your commencement ceremonies, I will confer on you all the “rights and responsibilities” of a Yale degree. Yours is a great responsibility. You will have to know what you are for.
What are you for?
“Surely in the light of history,” Eleanor Roosevelt said, “it is more intelligent to hope rather than to fear, to try rather than not to try.”
Yale has prepared you, as a scholar and a human being, to try; to face challenges with courage and determination. And I trust you are leaving Yale with a sense of your own responsibilities to one another, to the planet, and to our shared future.
By serving others and our communities with the many gifts you have been given, you will live a life that is for something, a life of meaning and purpose.
There is no time to waste; there are no words to waste: As a young Bob Dylan sang in 1965, “He not busy being born is busy dying.” We must give life to new ideas, imagine new ways of being in the world, new answers to the problems that vex us and our neighbors.
Now is the time.
Members of the Class of 20xx, please rise:
We are delighted to salute your accomplishments, and we are proud of your achievements. Remember to give thanks for all that has brought you to this day. And go forth from this place with grateful hearts, paying back the gifts you have received here by using your minds, your voices, and your hands to imagine and create the new worlds you wish to see.
What are you for?
Congratulations, Class of 20xx!
Thank you. Thank you.