Comments on: How Far We’ve Come http://twentyorsomething.com/2008/12/12/how-far-weve-come/ tonight we drink to youth. Mon, 30 Jan 2012 12:14:47 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: BenjaminBunny http://twentyorsomething.com/2008/12/12/how-far-weve-come/comment-page-1/#comment-65 BenjaminBunny Sat, 13 Dec 2008 19:07:04 +0000 http://twentyorsomething.wordpress.com/?p=764#comment-65 My Dear Susan, If you are in the mood for pondering, here's a nugget to gnaw on from Jim Lehrer of PBS. I thought of you when re-reading this. It seems to this flawed observer that you succeeded in taking to heart sentences one and two. Your recent trip is Exhibit A. What rang a bell was the third sentence. Just a thought I had and wanted to share. Your friend, BenjaminBunny As you search for your place in life I hereby advise you to take risks. Be willing to put your mind and your spirit, your time and your energy, your stomach and your emotions on the line. To search for a safe place is to search for an end to a rainbow that you will hate once you find it. Take charge of your own life. Create your own risks by setting your own standards, satisfying your own standards. Take charge. It is unlikely that any of you will have occasion to remember either me or my commencement address. I don't blame you. But if by chance something does linger, I hope it's just that there was a guy up here who kept saying, risk, risk. The way to happiness is to risk it. Risk it. May 2002 Jim Lehrer commencement address at University of Pennsylvania <em>BenjaminBunny - It's a pleasure to hear from you again; thanks for sticking with me and reading, as always! As you can tell, it's been an emotional rollercoaster, but looking back, the ride has been worth it. Fear is what has always held me back, and I'll admit that there are certain times where I feel that familiar pang of uncertainty, of insecurity. And indeed, it is most familiar. Once again, you've hit the nail on the head -- because doesn't the familiar bring the most comfort? But I also believe that that's normal, that it's a continuous journey. I've changed, but unfortunately it's not as grand a transformation as I would like, nor do I think it's right to ever expect it to be ;) Thanks so much for sharing the commencement speech, as it did resonate with me in more ways than one. If I can indulge in this for just a moment to explain...There was a moment in France where there was a rainbow spanning the entire length of a mountainside, and it seemed to end on a little, uninhabited, run-down shack. A fellow writer joked about finding gold there, but the beauty, for me at least, wasn't in what was at the end, but the colors, the way it lit up the mountain through the mist. For that moment, that's what was breathtaking. I didn't get a picture; it's only a memory that I had even forgotten until now. But maybe that's what I need to remind myself of. Maybe he, and you, are absolutely right. I'm too busy searching for that gold, that safe place, that I forget to appreciate what comes before it, what leads me there. Thanks, as always, for your insight and for your words. Wishing you the very, very best. - Susan My Dear Susan,
If you are in the mood for pondering, here’s a nugget to gnaw on from Jim Lehrer of PBS. I thought of you when re-reading this. It seems to this flawed observer that you succeeded in taking to heart sentences one and two. Your recent trip is Exhibit A. What rang a bell was the third sentence. Just a thought I had and wanted to share. Your friend, BenjaminBunny

As you search for your place in life I hereby advise you to take risks. Be willing to put your mind and your spirit, your time and your energy, your stomach and your emotions on the line. To search for a safe place is to search for an end to a rainbow that you will hate once you find it. Take charge of your own life. Create your own risks by setting your own standards, satisfying your own standards. Take charge.

It is unlikely that any of you will have occasion to remember either me or my commencement address. I don’t blame you. But if by chance something does linger, I hope it’s just that there was a guy up here who kept saying, risk, risk. The way to happiness is to risk it. Risk it.

May 2002 Jim Lehrer commencement address at University of Pennsylvania

BenjaminBunny – It’s a pleasure to hear from you again; thanks for sticking with me and reading, as always! As you can tell, it’s been an emotional rollercoaster, but looking back, the ride has been worth it. Fear is what has always held me back, and I’ll admit that there are certain times where I feel that familiar pang of uncertainty, of insecurity. And indeed, it is most familiar. Once again, you’ve hit the nail on the head — because doesn’t the familiar bring the most comfort? But I also believe that that’s normal, that it’s a continuous journey. I’ve changed, but unfortunately it’s not as grand a transformation as I would like, nor do I think it’s right to ever expect it to be ;)

Thanks so much for sharing the commencement speech, as it did resonate with me in more ways than one. If I can indulge in this for just a moment to explain…There was a moment in France where there was a rainbow spanning the entire length of a mountainside, and it seemed to end on a little, uninhabited, run-down shack. A fellow writer joked about finding gold there, but the beauty, for me at least, wasn’t in what was at the end, but the colors, the way it lit up the mountain through the mist. For that moment, that’s what was breathtaking.

I didn’t get a picture; it’s only a memory that I had even forgotten until now. But maybe that’s what I need to remind myself of. Maybe he, and you, are absolutely right. I’m too busy searching for that gold, that safe place, that I forget to appreciate what comes before it, what leads me there.

Thanks, as always, for your insight and for your words. Wishing you the very, very best. – Susan

]]> By: BenjaminBunny http://twentyorsomething.com/2008/12/12/how-far-weve-come/comment-page-1/#comment-64 BenjaminBunny Fri, 12 Dec 2008 20:40:57 +0000 http://twentyorsomething.wordpress.com/?p=764#comment-64 My Dear Susan, To paraphrase Glinda's comment to Dorothy, you've always had the power ... It has always been there, you just found a way to set it free. You tested and tasted the unknown and dare I say, you found enjoyment. Huzzah. I am curious, dear one, that for all of the sturm and drang, for the tsunami of emotional energy expended in France fighting the fear of the unknown and struggling to return to where you believe that you are most safe and secure, now that you are here, you say you now feel insecure. An interesting conundrum. Perhaps the Land of Insecurity is the place that feels most familiar? Hmmm. Worth a ponder. Or two. Your friend, BenjaminBunny My Dear Susan,
To paraphrase Glinda’s comment to Dorothy, you’ve always had the power … It has always been there, you just found a way to set it free. You tested and tasted the unknown and dare I say, you found enjoyment. Huzzah.

I am curious, dear one, that for all of the sturm and drang, for the tsunami of emotional energy expended in France fighting the fear of the unknown and struggling to return to where you believe that you are most safe and secure, now that you are here, you say you now feel insecure. An interesting conundrum. Perhaps the Land of Insecurity is the place that feels most familiar? Hmmm. Worth a ponder. Or two.

Your friend,
BenjaminBunny

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