Standing Tall

John A. Howard

John A. Howard is a senior fellow at the Howard Center on Family, Religion and Society in Rockford, IL. This is his commencement address given to Rockford, IL Home Schoolers, May 19, 2002.

Years ago, I believe it was not long after the Soviet Communists had scared the daylights out of America by installing some nuclear missiles in Cuba, an exceedingly popular star of show business named Bob Hope gave a college commencement address. He began,

Members of the graduating class, I have thought and thought about what I should say to you as you go out into a troubled and dangerous world. And then it came to me. My advice to you is, just don't go!

As one considers the horrible attacks of last September and the ferment of terrorist threats, there is a temptation to offer you the same advice, but that won't do. Rather it is important in such times to remind ourselves that throughout history severe problems-disease, drought, famine, hurricanes, volcanoes, harsh and brutal governments, terrible working conditions or military conflict-have imposed difficult and fearful circumstances on most people. The challenge is always to prepare new generations to stand up to whatever tribulations they encounter.

I want to tell you about an Austrian doctor named Viktor Frankl who was imprisoned in one of Hitler's Nazi concentration camps. The prisoners were subjected to unbelievable extremes of privation and persecution. They had inadequate clothing and housing and almost no food. They were forced to live in filth and were given no medical care. The guards were cruel and treated the prisoners like animals. Dr. Frankl did what little he could for the sick and dying. Over a period of time, his physician's habit of observing the health of the people around him led to an astonishing discovery. The people who kept their strength and sanity the longest were not the ones who by brute force or clever tricks obtained extra food, but rather those who tried to be helpful to the other prisoners and shared with them what little they had. Their physical and mental condition seemed to be strengthened by their friendliness, their compassion, and their primary attentions devoted to something other than themselves.

At first, Dr. Frankl found this hard to believe, but as the months went by, his observation was thoroughly confirmed. It was clear to him that no matter how wretched and hopeless a living situation may be, the individual always may choose how he will respond to that situation, and if the response is one of trying to make life better for others, that effort re-enforces the individual's psychological and physical health. >From this discovery Dr. Frankl developed a whole new school of psychiatry. Freud's psychiatric system involved a doctor who tried to figure out how the patient had become troubled and confused. By contrast, Frankl's concern was what will the patient, himself, do about it.

In this Age of Aquarius when so much of the television programming, the movies, the popular music and the literature is celebrating the do-your-own-thing life-style, it is difficult to persuade some young people that a life of service to others is a wise and beneficial choice, but the home-schooled students of America are all blessed with parents who make very substantial sacrifices to provide their education. Those parents are wonderful living examples for their children of serving and giving and helping.

Beyond the example of your parents, there is one other source of re-enforcement I wish to mention. Many years ago, I became acquainted with an elderly scientist who, although he had been retired for some time, had one of the liveliest and best informed minds I had ever encountered. He also had a cheerfulness and a serenity that marked him as an extraordinary human being. I asked him how he managed to stay so calm and upbeat in a world that seemed so confused and battered. He replied that it was his friends who sustained his good spirits, and with a gesture, he indicated that those good friends were all the books he had assembled there in his study.

"You know, John," he said,

. . . from time to time I have come across a book or an article or a quotation which spoke very directly to me in a positive way, an analysis or a poem which had an inspirational or reassuring influence, or which powerfully phrased some little bit of wisdom. These I have kept and ranged on the shelves according to the particular tonic they offered me much as the pharmacist organizes his remedies on shelves according to the illness they treat. There is no piece of news so distressing, no personal failure or loss so discouraging, no occasion of success so inflating but what I have here half a dozen literary medications to set it right.

What that wise gentleman was saying is that the great literature of the world inspires and elevates and gives hope to the reader. It should not be just a one-time thing to read a great book or a splendid poem and set it aside checking off on your list of the must reads the ones you have finished, like putting beads on a chain. The truly important works you read are, like the Bible, worthy of rereading and pondering from time to time.

I want to conclude with five brief quotations, which provide tonic for the soul.

The first one is by Robert Louis Stevenson, the author of Treasure Island, Kidnapped and A Child's Garden of Verses. You may know because of tuberculosis, his health was frail most of his life.

Whether any particular day shall bring to you more of happiness or suffering is largely beyond your power to determine. Whether each day of your life shall give happiness or suffering rests with you.

The next one is by the poet, naturalist and philosopher, Henry David Thoreau.

Of course, it is the spirit in which you do a thing which makes it interesting, whether it is sweeping a room, or pulling turnips.

Here is one by Mary Lyon who founded and was president of Mt. Holyoke, the first women's college in the United States. Throughout her career, service to others was a recurrent theme in her writings.

Character, like embroidery, is made stitch by stitch.

This one is by James M. Barrie, the novelist and playwright who wrote Peter Pan, The Admirable Chrichton and Dear Brutus.

Those who bring sunshine to the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves.

You will have noticed that all of these authors were among the most famous and highly regarded thinkers and writers of the 19th century. Today there is a pitiful shortage of prominent authors, educators and philosophers who lead us in the paths of wisdom and benevolence, but there are plenty of such authors from the past. I urge you to become friends with them and keep their best writings available for use when needed.

The last quotation needs a different kind of introduction. Fifty-eight years ago this month, I was about to graduate from a two-year program of schooling. I was one of 176,000 troops waiting on the southern coast of England to take part in the invasion of Normandy in World War II. You can imagine the pressures and tensions as we faced the channel crossing into a storm of gunfire from Hitler's coastal defenses. My generation had been well-prepared for our task. We were blessed to have grown up in a society that was religious and family oriented and accustomed in our daily living to be friendly, helpful and honorable and to reading literature that was inspirational and uplifting. Of course, we were fearful of what was to come but it was not an incapacitating fear. For most people, the primary reaction was a determination to do as well as we could all the things we had been trained to do as soldiers.

My mother, Edith Howard, was a lifelong reader of great literature. This final quotation is from a letter she tucked into my pocket as I left to go into the army.

None of us knows what is in store for us in this life, but one thing is certain, if we live according to the highest ideals of our faith and our traditions, we will have used well the time allotted to us.

May God bless you as you move on into the next stage of your life.