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Glory Has a Way of Sneaking Up on Fame and Stealing Its Lunch Money

By Dustin Rowles | Posted Under Miscellaneous | Comments (17)

RachelMaddow2.jpg

This is a little off the beaten path here, but it’s really too good not to share. Rachel Maddow was the graduation speaker over the weekend at Mrs. Pajiba-hyphenate’s alma mater, Smith College (and no, random jackass, that doesn’t make me her beard or vice versa, but it does make her smarter than you). I heard reports that the place where Maddow was delivering the speech was nearly filled to capacity by 10 a.m., four hours before the speech was set to be given. Needless to say, Rachel Maddow — who is also a local in Northampton — is about as good as it gets for graduation speakers at Smith College.

Anyway, the theme of Maddow’s speech is Personal Triumphs, more specifically, how they are overrated. Maddow spends the first eight or nine minutes setting up the theme. She talks about Carey Nation, the early 20th Century nutjob who was instrumental in getting prohibition passed. And she talked about what a disastrous era in America prohibition was. I didn’t know, for instance, that the government — in an effort to prevent people from resorting to industrial alcohol to get their fix — actually poisoned industrial alcohol, which led to some 10,000 deaths. It was a horrible 13 years for this country, but it was a personal triumph for Carey Nation, the famous bar-room smasher.

“Personal triumphs are overrated,” she says.

“When given the choice between fame and glory, take glory,” she says. “Life might very well be long. Keep your eyes on the horizon and live in a way that you will be proud of. You will sleep more, you will be a better partner, you will be a better mom, you will be a better friend, and you will not have to remember any complicated lies to brag about at the old-age home because you can brag about the truth of your well-lived life.”

Maybe Rachel Maddow is not your bag, so maybe this speech is not for you. But as graduation speeches go, it’s a brilliant one. And if you like Rachel Maddow, or great graduation speeches, then I encourage you to spend the 18:41 with this video.









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Comments

This was good. Thanks.

Posted by: DGM at May 18, 2010 8:59 AM

That quote makes the whole speech sound really amazing. But whenever I hear about how cool/good/touching/hilarious other people's commencement speeches were I get really jealous considering my grad speech was basically just a retirement speech for the campus chaplain.

I shouldn't be bitter/annoyed, but the speech was just so... blah.

Posted by: Kayanne at May 18, 2010 9:22 AM

I skipped my graduation ceremony in favor of seeing David Bowie play at Madison Square Garden. I think I made a good choice.

Posted by: stardust at May 18, 2010 9:31 AM

Rachel Maddow is a beautiful, supremely intelligent young lady with a sparkling personality and a killer sense of humor. Watching her commentaries make me sit up and pay attention and that crooked, knowing smile of hers when she's nailing the 'bad guys' in her own unique way is SO damned attractive.

Hey, I'm a middle-aged guy and quite aware that she wouldn't have any use for me whatsoever- it doesn't mean I can't appreciate her awesomeness nonetheless.

Posted by: Bill (Formerly Bill) at May 18, 2010 10:22 AM

Smith is my alma mater also! This year was my 5 year reunion, so if I could've scrounged up the money, I would've been there to see the speech live. I'm going to be bitter about missing this one for a very long time.

Posted by: tbean at May 18, 2010 10:30 AM

my grad speech was basically just a retirement speech for the campus chaplain.

The year before mine was the president of the IMF just after the riots in Seattle.

The year of mine was Condoleezza Rice. Yeah, I didn't go.

This is totally awesome : )

Posted by: twig at May 18, 2010 10:37 AM

I had my 15th at Smith last year - I love that place. It's Shangri-la....and I'm not even a lesbian. I had no idea Rachel Maddow was speaking! Jane Harman spoke at mine. No comment.

Dustin, Dustin: 1. It's Northampton, 2. It's Carrie or Carry Nation.

Smith Grads: Always showing off their intelligence. Noted and corrected. And that's probably the 9th time you've had to correct me on the spelling of Northampton. For some reason, it just won't take. -- DR

Posted by: samantha t at May 18, 2010 10:38 AM

Tbean: go to your tenth. It's a must. It's not expensive to stay in the dorms and it's such a special experience.

Posted by: samantha t at May 18, 2010 10:38 AM

I love, love, love this woman. LOVE!

That is all.

Posted by: Scully at May 18, 2010 11:15 AM

That was an amazing speech. Although I suspect my parents, who are die hard Republicans, would've liked her even less than the option they had at my own Commencement this year: Michelle Obama.

Would've been interesting to see how deep their frowns could get though, as Rachel talked about the Bush administration and the meth and Abramoff and the not-remotely-thinly-veiled references to Republican failures.

Posted by: christine at May 18, 2010 11:38 AM

I skipped out on my graduation last week because I had booked a paying gig a few weeks before. Hmmm...money in my pocket or wide open grassy patch in the sun that will set off my allergies? Easy decision.

My brother's graduation speech was a hoot and a half. They couldn't get a guest speaker, so the class valedictorian got a 20 minute slot. He spoke about nihilism and the corruption of the American government. He encouraged all of the graduates to give up hope and flee the country. I believe he may have said "abandon ship" at one point.

So, hearing a speech about how corrupt the government can be that didn't make me want to jump off of the nearest building was a treat.

Posted by: Robert at May 18, 2010 12:31 PM

Dustin: I know I'm tedious. I can't help myself when it comes to Smith.

Christine: I thought the same thing!

Posted by: samantha t at May 18, 2010 12:37 PM

I skipped my graduation, but I went to my then fiancee's, (later husband, ((later still Ex Husaband)) Undergrad ceremony from Portland State. Bill Clinton, then president, was speaking. It was really good, he was a very intriguing public speaker. We skipped out the INSTANT he was through, and were approached by a film crew for a local TV station, who asked Mr. Lwa'e' about the speech. He fumbled around, had nothing interesting to say, and laughed nervously.
Yeah. I MARRIED that bastion of eloquence. {facepalm}

Posted by: Lindsey with an 'e' at May 18, 2010 12:57 PM

"Smith College (and no, random jackass, that doesn’t make me her beard or vice versa, but it does make her smarter than you"

~~~~~~~~~~~

Pfft. Smith = hot, dumb chick from Scooby Doo, vs. Mount Holyoke = plain, smart chick from Scooby Doo. (The guy who did scooby doo based all the characters on one of the colleges in the 5-college consortium. Amherst was the preppy. Shaggy was Hampshire. Scooby was UMass. And the ladies were the two women's college.)

This was always of great amusement to my MHC sisters and myself, that we were the plain smart one. Reputation was that Smith ladies were the ones chasing Amherst menz, whilst MHC womyn were generally the BUGs and LUGs.

Reality was probably just that we were too lazy to get on the damned bus, being the ones at the end of the line. And we were probably jealous because Northampton is a cool town, while South Hadley...meeeehhhh.

Posted by: Foxeye at May 18, 2010 2:08 PM

I was theeeeere! It was brilliant, even though I couldn't see Rachel Maddow, because I was watching from a rooftop across the Quad, and her face was blocked by a tree.

To all Smith alums: I highly recommend going to your Reunion, because the alums staying in my house were drunk like 70% percent of the time, and partying like crazy. Class of '85 does it right, apparently.

Seriously though, I graduate next year and I'm so very jealous that 2010 got Rachel Maddow. Tina Fey keeps turning us down, so my hopes are not high.

Posted by: Smithie at May 18, 2010 2:40 PM

I would marry that woman if she would have me :(

Posted by: Lennon at May 18, 2010 3:34 PM

As the husband of a Smith grad, I have been to the Alumnae day reunion, and it felt more like a shakedown for money more than anything else. Yes, Smith is a good school and my wife loved it, but they are RELENTLESS in asking for money. When we went to my wife's 15th, they made each class stand up and announced how much money that class had contributed.

Meanwhile, the school's endowment is one of the largest in the country (yes, I understand how that might be a 1+1 =2 kind of thing).

Smith has a more than 1 billion dollar endowment, so more than 400k per student. University of Virginia has a big endowment for a state school, but it works out to less than 17k per student.

400k vs 17k per student is a BIG divide.

Posted by: morganew at May 18, 2010 5:01 PM