This year’s college graduates (except for those who, like myself, took time off during their undergraduate years… not a common thing any longer, I’m afraid) are the first to have gone through college in a post-9/11 world, as many commencement speakers are fond of pointing out. A friend, who sent me to this article, commented that what had in years past been one of his favorite New York Times features, once “a satisfying display of the broad spectrum of thought and idea and intellectual achievement in this country”, has become “a sad recap” of our sad state.

But there is this, from James McBride, an author and jazz musician who addressed Pratt University graduates, which my friend found to be the saving grace [thanks, abby]:

“If I were 21 I would walk the earth. I would go barefoot longer; I’d learn how to throw a Frisbee, I’d go braless if I were a woman and I would wear no underwear if I were a man. I’d play cards and wear the same pair of jeans until they were so stiff they could get up and strut around the room by themselves. … So don’t take the short road. Fool around. Have fun. … You’re not going to get this time back. Don’t panic and go to graduate school and law school. This nation has enough frightened, dissatisfied yuppies living in gated communities, driving S.U.V.’s and wondering where their youth went.

We need you to walk the earth, so that other nations can see the beauty of American youth, rather than seeing our young in combat fatigues behind the barrel of an M-16.”