Utter the word “plastics” to just about anyone my age and you’ll evoke an iconic scene in “The Graduate,” the 1967 film classic about the existential bewilderment of a college student catapulted with his degree into the real world.
Fresh home from an East-Coast liberal arts education, Ben Braddock (played by Dustin Hoffman in his first starring role) is feted at a cocktail party hosted by his parents. Young Ben plainly has no idea what he’s going to do with his life, much less how to order his values. And so a family friend, Mr. McGuire, takes him aside to set him straight:
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Mr. McGuire: I just want to say one word to you - just one word.
Ben: Yes sir.
Mr. McGuire: Are you listening?
Ben: Yes I am.
Mr. McGuire: 'Plastics.'
Ben: Exactly how do you mean?
Mr. McGuire: There's a great future in plastics. Think about it. Will you think about it?
Ben: Yes I will.
Mr. McGuire: Shh! Enough said. That's a deal.
For my generation, that exchange showcased the materialism and conformity against which many of us rebelled. It also epitomized the absurd hubris of a self-satisfied elder dispensing “advice” about life in a single word. Fear of becoming Mr. McGuire has informed every graduation speech I’ve ever written.
Now I’m going to take that risk. A few years ago, upon his own Harvard graduation my son asked me, mischievously, for the key to a fulfilled life. “Stretch,” I jokingly replied—referring to my middle-aged appreciation for the importance of keeping one’s physical body in working order.
Much to my surprise, I’ve recalled over and over again that lighthearted exchange. The word “stretch” now occupies a prominent place in my mind, as “plastics” did so long ago. But this word, I think, is no joke. So I’ll take on the mantle of Mr. McGuire.
Of course you should take time to stretch your body: athletes learn that early on; many of the rest of us come to realize it only too late in life. But I also mean “stretch” in almost every other sense of the word.
Continue to stretch your mind. Certainly you’ve done so thus far, because intellectual rigor is what good schools require and train. But don’t assume that the “real world” will naturally challenge you in this way. It doesn’t at all. Many, many graduates ease imperceptibly into lives of intellectual complacency. Don’t allow yourself to be impoverished in that way.
Resolve to stretch your heart. Admission to Harvard, and success once there, turns on what you’ve done, not on what you’ve felt. Looking ahead, graduates naturally focus on what they can achieve professionally, materially, and in the esteem of others. We know that love, empathy, and spiritual growth are important, but too often we assume that these things will develop on their own. Too often they don’t. Too often we consider devotion to professional achievement and devotion to emotional development as competitors in the zero-sum game of time. They aren’t by any means.
Finally, make sure to stretch out your hands. You are graduating into a world of tremendous injustice and yawning inequality. As members of the privileged elite, you owe it to others to use your advantages to help make the world fairer and more tolerable.
And believe me, you owe it to yourselves. Study after study reveals shocking levels of dissatisfaction among professionals of every calling who report an inability to see their work as improving the lives of others or the common good. Yet no one I know who devotes time to helping people they might never otherwise encounter reports anything of the sort. Will Rogers famously observed, "A man makes a living by what he gets, but he makes a life by what he gives." No truer words were ever spoken. You will do yourselves a world of good if you devote real time to helping others less fortunate.
You are all, each one of you, on the brink of a wonderful adventure. Use your talents, your values, and the love you have and need—to stretch.
Seth Waxman, ’73, served as Solicitor General of the United States between 1997 and 2001 and as President of Harvard’s Board of Overseers in 2012-2013. He is currently defending Harvard in litigation challenging its undergraduate admissions process.