From Deseret News archives:
Score one for the governor
Every graduate has heard the speech. Many have returned to give them.
But this past week, we were impressed by the address Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. gave to the graduates of Dixie State College. It had many familiar words and sentiments, but it also had the ring of a man speaking from the heart.
The governor told graduates he was discouraged by the number of men and women he knows in their 40s and 50s who haven't found what they want to do in life. He said too much thinking and not enough feeling will do that to a person. People should tune in to their hearts and turn down their brains. In other words, to use a line from the late Joseph Campbell, the quickest route to happiness is to "follow your bliss."
Last week the Deseret Morning News ran a letter from Joseph C. Josephson of Sandy that touted higher education as a way to gain a rounded life but cautioned about seeing it as an avenue to joy. We liked that letter. In fact, like Hamlet, many times thoughtful souls mull and ponder life to the point they freeze up and are unable to function.
Balancing on a high wire above a circus crowd is a nifty trick, but it's not as impressive as the talent for balancing the heart against the mind.
We will not be speaking at a commencement this year. Editorial boards seldom do. But if we were, we'd say: Don't build a mansion of information and insight and try to fill it with warmth. Find the fire inside of yourself first, then build your life around it — even if the structure is little more than a lean-to.
A cottage with a blazing hearth always trumps a mansion filled with chill.
The governor got it right.
As the world wheels and spins in ways it never has before, we hope the crop of 2006 graduates will get it right as well. Success is not always fulfillment. Finding fulfillment often demands more than success.
It demands courage to follow your heart.
