| "Rejoice in the Lord always, I will say it again: | | | | to rock bottom. Alex decided that rock bottom was |
| Rejoice!" Philippians 4:4 | | | | the only place to be. It was where he could be free. |
| I am working on rejoicing today. I read J.K. Rowling's | | | | Alex removed himself from everyone, family, friends |
| commencement speech at Harvard. It was a very | | | | and acquaintances. He went into the wild of Alaska |
| wonderful message I thought. Her two themes, | | | | and lived out his days alone. He discovered too late |
| failure and imagination, made connections in my mind | | | | that relationships are what give meaning to life. He |
| to a movie I watched over the weekend. | | | | discovered in the wild that loneliness is a trap. I |
| I rented "Into the Wild" on Saturday for the second | | | | wonder how Alex would speak of failure to the |
| time. It's the Sean Penn movie about a kid who | | | | Harvard graduates today. I wonder if he would |
| graduates from college and then disappears on a | | | | define failure as adhering to society's concepts of |
| journey of self-discovery. He takes on the name of | | | | success or if he would define failure as isolating |
| Alexander Supertramp and Alex leaves no trace of | | | | yourself from love. |
| where he is going and he never communicates with | | | | Rowling's second theme was about imagination. She |
| his troubled family again. Alex meets people who | | | | didn't talk about using imagination to build fictional |
| seek to connect with him but all along his journey he | | | | worlds but rather to experience and empathize with |
| only seeks to separate himself again and again. | | | | the pain of others, to use those feelings to |
| The young man's journey touches on the theme of | | | | encourage action to improve the lot of the less |
| failure that Rowling spoke of at Harvard. She | | | | fortunate. Alex lacked empathy. He shielded himself |
| experienced failure and overcame it. She encouraged | | | | from it because of his pain. In every encounter with |
| the young graduates to look at failure as a possible | | | | the characters he met along his journey, he failed to |
| outcome of their future endeavors. Her personal | | | | empathize with their pain. He wasn't uncaring but he |
| triumph lends a golden tint to failure; but she | | | | maintained a safe distance from all of them and just |
| encourages them to see failure as opportunity. Alex | | | | when it seemed he might become connected, he |
| checks out of life in response to a prescribed | | | | fled, into the night when he could. |
| concept of failure; a damning view of failure that | | | | So rejoice in the opportunities of failure and help |
| labels people as winners and losers. He chose to | | | | others to find ways to rejoice as well; especially |
| select failure in rebellion: he selected his own concept | | | | those who are in need of being uplifted. Alex wrote |
| of what it meant to be successful. | | | | before he died that "Happiness is only real when it's |
| Rowling echoed that sentiment but went about it in a | | | | shared." My message today is to rejoice and to find |
| completely different way. She described coming to | | | | someone to share your happiness with. Trust your |
| the realization that failure had set her free, much as | | | | failures to teach and not destroy you; and as |
| Alex set himself free. Rowling described how her | | | | Rowling did, use rock bottom as your firm foundation |
| decision to write sprang from failure. She decided | | | | for building anew. |
| that if she were to fail again it was a short fall back | | | | |