Maybe Joan Didion’s 1975 commencement speech at the University of California Riverside was better when it was ‘lost’ and all we had were the YOLO excerpts from the end. Well, it’s all here now:
I think what you might be blinded for, what you ought to watch out for, is the habit of saying no, the habit of not believing anybody or anything. You’ve got to watch out for moving into a world where you don’t think there’s any objective reality, where there’s only you and that tree you just planted. There’s an objective reality, there is an objective social reality. Take it on faith.
All I want to tell you today, really, is not to do that. Not to move into that world where you’re alone with yourself and your tree. I want to tell you to live in the messy world, throw yourself into the convulsion of the world.
I’m not telling you to make the world better, because I don’t think that progress is necessarily part of the package. I’m just telling you to live in it. Not just to endure it, not just to suffer it, not just to pass through it, but to live in it. To look at it. To try to get the picture. To live recklessly. To take chances. To make your own work and take pride in it. To seize the moment.
Hhmm! While I’m glad she made a plug for reality, the idea of graduating from college, and Joan Didion driving out to Riverside to say don’t try to make the world better frankly sucks.
Joan Didion’s ‘lost’ commencement address, revealed [ucr.edu via jodi kantor]
Previously, related; Joan Didion’s Mantle