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Today I had the deep pleasure of sitting in a damp and drizzly Harvard Yard (thanks to the supreme kindness of Mary Lou Shields) and listening to J. K. Rowling address the graduating classes.  The place was packed.  Five thousand, perhaps?  More? I have no idea. All I can say was that there was one dear lady of just a few days shy of 100 years old over on one side of the aisle, and a small gaggle of kids near me, all clutching their Harry Potter volumes, some of whom can’t have been more than about eight.  There were plenty more of their fellow youthful enthusiasts to be seen throughout the crowd.

Ms - I beg your pardon - Doctor Rowling gave a speech that was in many ways an absolute masterpiece of gently understated wisdom.  She spoke from the heart, about herself, and yet managed to make what she said about far more than just herself.  Of course, many of us were there because we specifically wanted to know something personal about the publishing phenomenon of the century.  we wanted to know what she was like. She knew that, gave us what we wanted, and then gave us just a little bit more.

She presented two main themes.  The first was that there are virtues in experiencing failure, since it takes us down to the bedrock of who we are so we can build anew.  That’s good advice.  And yet — how many people would dare to stand before a crowd of brand new Harvard Grads and even mention the word failure? This is the cream of the successful youth of our world, after all.  Yet she acknowledged that we will all meet some failures, and each one is a learning point - if we choose to be alert to it.

She also talked about imagination.  The imagination can cause us to write novels, invent new gadgets, invent new lives for ourselves, and see things differently.  It can also be used to mobilize compassion.  What she said - again it was a courageous thing to say - is that we cannot afford to put ourselves in a place of denial.  We cannot pretend that the poor do not need help unless we refuse to let our imaginations act.  Our imaginations, which on this festive day would be most likely focusing on future glories, also have to be used to feel compassion for others so that we can work meaningfully with them to help solve the problems that are so prevalent in our world.  It wasn’t just a call to be of service.  It was a reminder that we can fail to be of service only if we actually deny a vital part of ourselves. In other words, service to others is not voluntary. It’s part of being fully human.
What anyone can say in a Commencement speech is limited.  The listeners one is supposedly addressing are usually tired from partying or just relieved that the studying is over for a while. Most people forget what the speaker says, and often who he or she was, within a surprisingly short span.  So one has to keep the points clean, clear, and yet needling enough to be recalled later.

Dr Rowling, I feel, got it just right.