Dr. Joseph Campbell wrote that certain ceremonies evolved to clarify the changes in the seasons of human experience and to articulate those things which should be left behind, and those useful things which should be carried into the future.

Coming-of-age rites, for example, signaled the time to leave behind childhood things and take on the responsibilities of womanhood and manhood. The marriage ceremony demarcated the end of past searching and the dedication to a new partnership.

I would like to think that graduation is one of those useful ceremonies. What will you leave behind and what will you take with you? That’s what I want to talk about this afternoon.

I love this place. It will always be a part of me . . . as it now will always be a part of you. I couldn’t tell you what logic guided me here as a student. I can’t explain very well what always makes me want to come back. I am inspired by the natural beauty of the campus and by the unique spirit of this place.

But Principia is not just a place. It’s an idea. Principia has always been an idea of fresh opportunities every moment, the power of truth, the joy of life, the ascendancy of goodness. As an idea, it is easy to carry in your heart wherever you go. Take it with you on your next adventure.

Looking into the infinite can sometimes feel like looking into the abyss if we have relied on the prescribed life of a student where activities are ordered and where life is measured by the next paper, the next date, or the next vacation.

On the other hand, looking into the infinite can be a liberating journey. You are free to pursue your most cherished dreams without a clue how you are going to get there . . . or if you are going to get there . . . because the journey isn’t really about getting somewhere. The journey is to learn more about your real self and more about what you really want.

So whatever you plan to do next, whatever you hope to do, whatever you find yourself doing, I hope you will consider taking with you four simple concepts.

Many would tell you these are exactly the kind of innocent ideas that it is time to leave behind as you move on to the "real world" beyond the beautiful Chapel green. All I can offer is that, in my experience, these are the most useful, the most enriching, and not to be missed.

The first is to choose to begin aright. Whether you are embarking on a first job, a new relationship or any other human endeavor, it is important to begin aright by knowing what you have to offer.

Some may think they have a good education, great experience, a charming personality, and attractive looks. Or conversely, they may fear that they have a liberal arts education, no experience, a dull personality, and no one ever looks at them. Both are false assessments that lead nowhere, though some may take years or even a lifetime to find this out.

Long ago, as we were starting out on our impossible adventure of filmmaking, my brother loved to remind me, quoting from a book you all know, "The admission to oneself that man is God’s own likeness sets man free to master the infinite idea" [Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, p. 90].

I graduated from the College with a wide-eyed enthusiasm that was more like one full tank of gas than a lifelong source of energy, but I am grateful for that tank of gas. That first year after college was packed with one wonderful experience upon another.

A year after graduation, however, my career was stalled. I had no career. It was a deeply soul-searching time. I started over, determined to begin the right way. I learned to resist the constant temptation to define my future in terms of society’s expectations or another person’s past success. I learned to fight the human instinct to speculate on the possibilities and probabilities, the risks and the consequences, the dances and the romances of what lay ahead.

Finally, probably most importantly, I surrendered. I surrendered my most cherished plans of being a film director. I was ready to listen and follow direction that superseded human logic. A friend liked to sum up such humbling moments with the truism, "There’s your plan and God’s plan, and your plan doesn’t count for much."

When you are ready to surrender your best-laid plans, your so-called talent, your most satisfying desires, and to listen and follow, you are ready to begin. You are ready for progress. Your progress is in a straight line of learning who you really are and what you really desire, not necessarily in some straight line of growing salaries and job titles. We must resist the temptation to let money and titles tell us who we are and who others are.

When I was humbled enough to be led, I realized that I would succeed through no power or talent of my own. I recognized that what each of us really has to offer is the ability to reflect the enduring qualities of Truth, Love, and Principle.

These reflected qualities are of priceless value. Every endeavor has great need for them. No one is better prepared to deliver the goods than you are. All you are looking for is a fertile field in which to plant these qualities.

To most Hollywood observers, my fertile field didn’t seem so fertile. It was the Walt Disney Company. At that time, Hollywood viewed Disney as the lowest, the least successful, fading, loser studio. But, once I began aright, I found a job there with a cold call that met with a warm reception. I wasn’t well paid at first, but I loved the company every day. Over twenty-three years, I had the fun of watching it grow from the least to the most successful studio in Hollywood.

I didn’t know what would happen when I joined Disney. I couldn’t have planned a career path that would progress from finance and marketing into producing records and fashions and animation and movies. That’s why it is important to begin aright.

What a radical approach, to lean on an unseen power to order our lives. I found that everything, everything I had ever learned was useful, even the French language. How important it is to be open to learning whatever is offered in your experience. And that, parenthetically, is one of the reasons I think a liberal arts education is so wonderful.

The point is, the higher the purpose you bring to your work and your relationships, the more you will accomplish, but the less you will be able to claim credit for any accomplishment, knowing how totally dependent on God you really are.

The second choice I would like you to consider sounds so simple, but like anything worthwhile, it requires effort. Be good. BE good.

There is a tendency today to put great emphasis on being good at something – sports, business, handling crises, juggling job and family. At times, there is so much emphasis on being good at our worldly pursuits that we neglect this simple, most important and most satisfying pursuit. BE good.

Goodness includes infinite upright qualities – patience, meekness, kindness, civility, a nurturing sense of friendship, orderliness, honesty, honesty, honesty. The degree to which you embody – really embody – these good qualities, you will have obtained the only power you will ever have. That’s a revolutionary concept in a materialistic society. Goodness and truth have a power of their own. I can’t tell you how consistently that has proven to be the case in my experience.

Some years ago, when I was president of Disney’s worldwide records and music publishing companies and head of Disney’s US merchandising efforts and in the process of founding Disney’s cartoon operations, a new management took over the corporation.

The areas I was in charge of were successful and growing in a corporate landscape that was otherwise under-performing or declining. It was clear that the new management was impressed and wanted to expand my responsibilities. Likewise, I wanted to progress to new challenges.

However, something disturbing began to happen. Whenever the new president called me, he would indicate that I should have my boss’s job and would ask for the ammunition to replace him. The truth is I felt a lot of changes were called for, but what kind of organization would we have if each subordinate were tempted with offers of personal gain to criticize his boss. I responded that I didn’t think it appropriate to answer. But the calls kept coming.

Finally, I went to the chairman of the board and explained my position. I told him I couldn’t stay in an organization that would institutionalize this kind of backstabbing. He immediately agreed the calls would stop.

Then he asked what I knew about television. "Not much," I responded honestly. He looked at me for a long while. To my surprise, he asked me to be president of Disney’s network television operations, an activity vital to the success of the corporation. That’s how I started in television. By this point, I had become used to such tangential logic in my career path.

BE good. We are not setting up to be great or trying to be important or rich or famous or recognized or independent – just good. Embody goodness, do good.

The third concept my brother and I discovered when we were teens. Somehow we found that life was meant to be fun and that we should be joyful all of the time. "Life is beautiful," like the movie says. That’s the way it is supposed to be. We not only have to find the beauty that is everywhere, we are also called upon to reflect that beauty in some dark and grim corners. Do the joyful things. Don’t miss them. They may not mean anything on a job resume, but they will mean everything on your life resume.

The fourth concept, and one that is most natural to Principians, is a commitment to the relationships you have been given. Take your classmates, friends, and acquaintances with you in your heart. They are not just a convenient part of your experience.

When I looked around at my classmates at my last reunion and realized how little each of us had in common, I wondered, "Why are we all together? What purpose brought us together as students from all over the world to this place?" We are brought together to love one another. That’s WHY your classmates are given to your experience. They are given to you to love. Cherish them. Work at it. Keep them. Take those relationships with you. They will bless you.

Even more important, those of you who decide to form families and to raise children must take the time to love them, love them. Little else is as important to your happiness and to the well-being of our society. With all that you have learned about hard work that has brought you to this graduation day, fifty years from now you will not regret the time you lavished upon your family, but you may regret the time that you didn’t. Love those relationships that you are given. That’s why they are there. Give them time.

You know, we hear a lot about change and how much faster things will be changing in the future. And this is so. And we hear a lot about the 21st century as if next year everything will somehow be different. And some things might be very different. But I ask you to think about those things that are good, for they will be what is fulfilling in life.

As you leave Principia today, take with you those enduring qualities which you have loved since the beginning, embody them, let them be you. This is why we live . . . to be about the activity of reflecting good. Each of you is uniquely capable of all good now. You have so much to offer.

God bless you, Class of 1999. Your way is established. Let your dreams be of good.