Sahabat

Dapet poem ini dari Lidia.

We need friends for many reasons,

all throughout the season.

We need friends to comfort us when we are sad,

and to have fun with us when we are glad.

We need friends to give us good advice,

We need someone we can count on,

and treat us nice.

We need friends to remember us

one we have passed

sharing memories that will always last.

Wisdom - from Prof. Don Markwell, UWA

Ingin berbagi email dari Reza Faresyi, seorang teman yang ada di University of Western Australia sana... Emailnya tentang pidato dari Prof. Don Markwell pada acara wisuda di UWA tanggal 8 Sept lalu. Saya kutip beberapa....Mudah-2an bisa jadi bahan buat nambah wawasan...

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Many years ago I heard of a father who asked each of his children this question: what will you do with your life that will make the greatest difference for good in the world? It seems to me a wonderful question for each of us to consider – how can we best use our special talents, whatever they may be, and the expertise that we gain, to make the world a better place?

There are several important aspects of this.

The first is aiming to make a difference – not being a passenger but a driver in life’s journey.

Those who make a difference in the world are usually people who question, when the world is imperfect in so many ways, what can I do – myself or with others – to change things for the better?

In 1912, the University Senate adopted the simple English words to which the Vice-Chancellor has referred - ‘Seek wisdom’ - as the motto of this University; and the inscriptions on the statues and stone benches near the reflecting pool have as their theme that it is by beauty that we come at wisdom. But in our universities, as throughout society at large, it seems to me that there are far more clever people than there are wise.

You are undoubtedly a person of greater knowledge and skills than you were when you started your studies. But are you wiser?

How can we make sure that we are not only better informed, but wiser also?

Wisdom involves a sense of what is right, and what is wrong. It involves a fundamental integrity of character, magnanimity, and generosity of spirit. It recognises and rejects the futility, the self-destructive force, of hatred.

Wisdom involves a well-judged balance of energetic action and quiet reflection. Wisdom involves an appreciation of what action circumstances require, and what circumstances will allow.

The person of wisdom remembers always to ask what is our fundamental purpose, and how best we can achieve it. The philosopher Nietzsche said that ‘the most commonplace form of stupidity is to forget what we are trying to do’.

Wisdom involves understanding people – their motivations and their behaviour – as individuals and in groups or organisations.

The wise person understands that neither they nor anyone else has a monopoly on wisdom, and appreciates diversity, seeking always to learn from and to engage with the wisdom of others. Diversity includes an engagement with the wisdom of women and men of cultures, nations, and religions different from one’s own. The wise person may well seek wisdom in religion – but surely not in fundamentalism. They may seek it in philosophy, but not in rigid ideology.

Where, then, is wisdom to be found?

We may find it in the example of others, those we know and others about whom we read and hear. Some of the wisdom of others can rub off on us if we seek them out as mentors, and this is something I encourage new graduates to do.

Wisdom comes from wide reading in fields far beyond one’s own professional discipline.

Wisdom comes from reflection.

Wisdom comes from experience. Step outside your comfort zone, to seek new experiences from which you will learn, both within Australia and overseas.

Not all the experience from which we learn is comfortable. As Robert Reich suggested, when he referred to those ‘walls of character’ into which we crash, the getting of wisdom is often a bruising experience.

The wise person knows when to speak, and when to be silent. Oliver Wendell Holmes said: ‘It is the province of knowledge to speak and it is the privilege of wisdom to listen.’

If in years to come, the Chancellor of the University of Western Australia were to invite you to come back to Winthrop Hall to speak at a Graduation Ceremony about how you have made a difference for good in the world – not the brief that I was given, I hasten to add - I wonder what you would say. Please don’t say that you haven’t made a difference. Please make absolutely certain that you have!