So I was going through my iTunes library when I came across “Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen)” which is a spoken word performance by Baz Luhrmann and was released in 1999. The words were originally written two years prior by a Chicago Tribune columnist, Mary Schmich. It reminded me about somethings in life. So I’m just going to post the music video and the column here, I hope you enjoy!
Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young
Inside every adult lurks a graduation speaker dying to get out, some world-weary pundit eager to pontificate on life to young people who’d rather be Rollerblading. Most of us, alas, will never be invited to sow our words of wisdom among an audience of caps and gowns, but there’s no reason we can’t entertain ourselves by composing a Guide to Life for Graduates.
I encourage anyone over 26 to try this and thank you for indulging my attempt.
Ladies and gentlemen of the class of ’97:
Wear sunscreen.
If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now.
Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they’ve faded. But trust me, in 20 years, you’ll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can’t grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine.
Don’t worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4 p.m. on some idle Tuesday.
Do one thing every day that scares you.
Sing.
Don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts. Don’t put up with people who are reckless with yours.
Floss.
Don’t waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind. The race is long and, in the end, it’s only with yourself.
Remember compliments you receive. Forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.
Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements.
Stretch.
Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don’t.
Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees. You’ll miss them when they’re gone.
Maybe you’ll marry, maybe you won’t. Maybe you’ll have children, maybe you won’t. Maybe you’ll divorce at 40, maybe you’ll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary. Whatever you do, don’t congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either. Your choices are half chance. So are everybody else’s.
Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can. Don’t be afraid of it or of what other people think of it. It’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever own.
Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room.
Read the directions, even if you don’t follow them.
Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly.
Get to know your parents. You never know when they’ll be gone for good. Be nice to your siblings. They’re your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.
Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young.
Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard. Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft. Travel.
Accept certain inalienable truths: Prices will rise. Politicians will philander. You, too, will get old. And when you do, you’ll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.
Respect your elders.
Don’t expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund. Maybe you’ll have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either one might run out.
Don’t mess too much with your hair or by the time you’re 40 it will look 85.
Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it’s worth.
So I was walking through Broad Ripple with my friends and came across this board on the side of the Good Earth Natural Foods Store. At first, I just laughed… “clever,” I thought to myself.
But isn’t it amazing? It really gave me something to think about. How many people are out there thinking that they’re hopeless, that everything is meaningless. This flier is essentially saying, “hey, there’s hope! Take some hope!” Sometimes in the midst of our trials we forget that there is always hope. I’m going through trials right now that are really stretching me and there are times when I don’t have a whole lot of hope.
I’m always the type of person who helps people with their problems, because I can “see the whole forest” while my friends can only see the trees in front of them… they can’t see the whole picture. Now the role is reversed, I’m wandering through the forest and unable to see the whole picture… and it sucks! And those who feel hopeless are probably in the same situation, they can’t see the overall picture of their lives.
Sometimes we just need someone to tell us that everything is going to be alright, that’s what I love about this flier. Sometimes we need a reminder that there is hope. So whoever posted this flier, thanks for reminding me of a little thing called hope.
So this week will probably be a slow week for the Wyote blog. I have my usual routine on Monday and Tuesday of work intermingled with classes. It should be an interesting week, here’s the agenda:
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition – My Dad and I have rented a 20 cubic yard dumpster and will be getting rid of tons of old junk from the basement and garage. I figure it’s best to do this now while my Dad is still in good shape, ha ha! I have taken before pictures and will take some pictures after the project is done so you can see the progress!
Mom’s flying in – My mom and step-dad are flying in for Thanksgiving. It is always good to see them, so I will be taking off Wednesday to pick them up from the airport and spend time with them.
Friends are coming into town – My friend Jake is coming home from IU, so it’s a good chance to beat some sense into him. His freshmen year has made him a little cocky.
Working on my new computer – I’ll be working on moving all my stuff from my old computer to my new one, I’m pretty excited about the enhanced computing power. I hope to play some video games over vacation to get my mind off of things.
So needless to say, while I get a break from work and school, I’ll still be keeping myself busy. Today is a pretty sweet day at work, my boss is taking us out to lunch and a movie! I also have class tonight, which I was able to get all the work done for it over the weekend, thank God.
I may post an entry or two over this week, but chances are that I’ll have some ready for all of you next week! I hope all of you have a wonderful week!
I was going through my daily news today and saw a story in The Christian Post entitled, “Pastors Worldwide Pledge Not to ‘Short Circuit’ Sermons.’ There were two questions that came to mind when I read the headline: are preachers lacking creativity or are we putting too many demands on the pastor’s time? I think the answer is probably both. Because of the demands on the pastor’s time, he is not given sufficient time to spend in God’s Word and because of that the sermon can lack originality.
In today’s world, we have a wealth of resources at our fingertips, including a place like SermonCentral.com where we can listen to various interpretations on scripture. What this pledge does is causes pastors to say, “while SermonCentral.com is a great place to get insight, it does not replace quality time in the Word of God.”
For me personally, I love pastors who can get excited about what they’ve learned through their study. Why? Because they’ve made a personal discovery, rather than riding the wave of someone else’s discovery. Who do you think is going to be more excited about the discovery, someone who made the discovery or someone who read about the discovery?
So what can we do? Pastors need to draw boundaries if they haven’t to make sure that they’re getting their study time in and congregations need to become more self-sufficient. There are some congregations who wouldn’t survive if they didn’t have a pastor coordinating everything. The truth is that God has given all of us different gifts and abilities and the church can’t rest on one person. So if we’re looking to be inspired on Sunday mornings, we should give our pastor as much space as possible so that he can have time to be in the Word and be inspired.
So I came across this really awesome art form that’s been developing. Have you ever come up behind a really dirty box truck where someone used their finger to write “wash me” on the back? Reverse graffiti is the same concept.
Basically the person brings with them a ton of clean rags and uses those rags as their pen while using the dirty surface as a canvas. Below is a video of how the process works. For those of you reading this post as a note on my Facebook, you will need to click on “View Original Post”to see the video.
