Bragging Rights: Colbert at Knox

Usually it's the big universities who get graduation speakers that might make news but this time it's my alma mater, described in Editor and Publisher as "tiny" Knox College. Their graduation speaker was Stephen Colbert.

Colbert gave them good advice, too. The path to success? Get your own TV show. “It pays well," he observed, "the hours are great and you have fans. Eventually, some nice people will give you an honorary degree for doing jack squat.” (It's funny but also painfully true--successful people, particularly in show biz and the arts, are always being asked how to do it, and there's never an answer. Every path is completely individual, and other things being equal, depends on timing that may largely be luck. )

But dropping his TV show persona, Colbert did have some great advice:"Remember, you cannot be both young and wise. Young people who pretend to be wise to the ways of the world are mostly cynics. Cynicism masquerades as wisdom, but it is the farthest thing from it. Because cynics don’t learn anything. Because cynicism is a self-imposed blinder, a rejection of the world because we are afraid it will hurt us or disappoint us. "Cynics always say no. But saying yes begins things. Saying yes is how things grow. Saying yes leads to knowledge. Yes is for young people. So for as long as you have the strength to, say yes.

The article also quotes a note sent to Colbert by last year's Knox College commencement speaker, Senator Barak Obama (Knox is in his state, in Galesburg, Illinois.) Stephen, Congratulations on being asked to speak at the 2006 Knox College Commencement. This is an enormous honor and on behalf of the people of Illinois, I'd like to welcome you to our state. As you know, I was invited to speak at Knox after my keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention and subsequent election to the United States Senate. Your convention speech must also have gone really well to have been invited. It's weird that I didn't read about it somewhere."