I got a new book yesterday: “Neil
Gaiman’s ‘Make Good Art’ speech”. If you’re looking for bookshelf art, it’s a gorgeous book. If
I can figure out how to post a picture, I will. Otherwise, you’ll have to go to
the bookstore and get one – do that anyway, because it’s an amazing book. And
it will take less than an hour to read it because it’s a speech and the best
speeches are the shortest. But you
will want to keep it close by and read it again. It’s a commencement speech.
Do you remember your commencement address?
I don’t remember mine. It was law school, so probably a lawyer or a judge. But
that’s a guess. I can’t remember a single thing about it. So it was probably a
sober, grown-up sort of speech about excellence in the profession and some
cliché about the road not taken. What I do remember is that we stood for O
Canada. And again for God Save the Queen. I was going to stay seated in protest
because I don’t believe in any kind of inherited power or status, but then I
noticed my mother watching me as she stood and sang -- like a good ex-pat brit whose family had not one single
university grad. So I stood. And the rest is a blank.
But, if the speech was like Neil Gaiman’s,
I would’ve remembered every word of it:
“…nothing I did where the only reason for
doing it was the money was ever worth it…”
“I hope you’ll make mistakes…”
Are you are wondering who the hell is Neil
Gaiman?! And why does he want me to make mistakes?
“…If you’re making mistakes, it means
you’re out there doing something. And the mistakes themselves can be useful. I
once misspelled Caroline
in a letter, transposing the A and the O, and I thought, Coraline looks like a
real name…”
That’s right, he wrote the book, Coraline.
Which is way scarier than the movie and not at all for five-year-olds, so don’t
read it to them at bedtime. Trust me. Just let them see the movie and do not
leave their side. Because (1) it’s a little scary and (2) it’s an awesome
movie.
Neil Gaimanis an adult, but he is not a
grown-up. So his speech had lots of useful advice in it: Ignore the rules, the limits
and ‘the way it’s always been’ and make fantastic mistakes. He is aware that
bellies need to be filled, and bodies sheltered, but just don’t sell your heart
and soul to do it. And -- I’m embelishing here -- people, love, and a healthy
planet are worth more than things like great big cars, closets full of shoes,
and McMansions with hot-glue-gun-scrapbook-rooms.
Depending how you feel about that last
paragraph, you will know if you are a grown-up or an adult. I am an adult. But
not a grown-up. I like that last paragraph. Grown-ups will not agree. They are
the ones who believe that late-slips make kids get to school on time. They make
stupid playground rules like no skipping ropes in playgrounds because one time,
somewhere, a kid got strangled by one. Which kind of reminds me of the
pop-rocks and coke myth – you know, the kid who filled his mouth with pop-rocks
and coke, held his mouth closed, and his brain exploded!? Or the pop-rocks blew through the roof
of his mouth and tore up his brain. I always wondered, why didn’t he just open
his mouth? Grown-ups would ban pop-rocks.
The point is, there are adults: people who
are over 18 years of age, have bank accounts and maybe even houses and kids,
but they still think a lot of the rules of grade school are unfair and absurd,
and that climbing trees is fun, candy is delicious and should be shared. And
there are grown-ups: unbending, rule-making, non-sharing (because of ‘germs’)
candy hoarders.
Adult vs Grown Up*.
Sharer vs Hoarder. Choose your side.
*I
am sticking to the word theme, as I announced last week. Today’s blog has been
brought to you by the word ADULT
and it’s counter, GROWN-UP.
