Definitely too upbeat for this crowd.

He opened with a joke you know.

"I've never understood date rape," he said, "I'd never date a girl after I raped her."

Maybe you guys should embed an unpaid intern or two at the school for a few weeks so you can get the whole exciting story as it unfolds with shocking new developments.

Even better than @3 you could have them take pics of the future light rail station and tell us what happened at the bike planning session there last night, and then report on how Unpaid Internships were under attack by SCOTUS and how living in debt was the preferred state of existence for young people, and how we should all love our East German Secret Police masters here in New East Germany (aka USA).

Blech.

I like it.

Schools would have to be lot better funded to expect teachers to have time to get around to Ernest Becker's ideas.

I like this, a great deal. I don't agree with every word of it, but it is really quite good.

More importantly, though, is the fact that Mr. Guterson actually addressed the graduates like adults, which is to say, he gave a frank and unfiltered account of his view on life. He respected them enough to make them uncomfortable.

Put another way: we should not be surprised when young adults act like children, if we insist on infantalizing them.

tldr

I think this is mostly the truth, but he lays it on a bit too thick for the occasion. Even reading this, my mood is cast into darkness. If I was actually there, I can imagine feeling either crushed into a near-suicidal fugue, or provoked into anger that he couldn't just soften the blow a bit with a couple white lies here and there.

A very good if discursive speech, he seemed to know how to let them out to pasture and then at the end corral them back into the barn.

For my part, I'd stick with what JFK said,

“The ancient Greek definition of happiness was the full use of your powers along lines of excellence.”

If graduations were like shows, I'd ask what time the students are going on and show up then. Every commencement address I've been to went on waaaaaaaaaaaaay to long.

Why did some parents hate it though? Seems like a lot of shit 18-year olds could stand to think about.

So how come nothing about sunscreen?

This is a great speech. Maybe wasted on an audience too young to be familiar with Existentialism and disappointment. I was listening to Pink Floyd's Breathe the other day and when it got to the to the part about time wasted and "no one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun" it resonated SO much more than when I was their age. I would have benefited from a similar speech, but may not have really gotten it until years later.

This was a good read -- I agree there were good parts and not-so-good parts. But... can you imagine listening to this as a speech? It's so dense, it would take a really talented orator to make it listenable/digestible, even to a receptive audience.

Yeah. He is kind of a downer. I think I would have heckled him too.

It reads as a really great speech, in my opinion. The problem it seems, according to someone on the other thread who was there, was his delivery, which I think is totally understandable. Reading it in, as I guess is the only way feasible since I've never read this man's books nor heard him speak, my own voice, a lot of what he said rang very true for me now, at 31 However, depending on his delivery, I could see myself being upset to have to to listen to this on one of the happiest days of my young life so far.

He's (knowingly or not) aping David Foster Wallace's Kenyon commencement address.

"Everybody dies" isn't exactly groundbreaking insight. And that seems like a lot of words for a 15 minute talk.

Loved it. People rarely enjoy hearing what they need to hear, and i think this is a speech we could all have used when we were 18. Of course the Millennials' helicopter parents weren't too pumped about it, but that's no shock. Their precious little one-of-a-kind snowflake babies are all too special for any of this to apply to them. It took some stones to stand up there and deliver the truth like that and I applaud him for it. I couldn't tell you a single word my high school or college commencement speakers said, or who they were for that matter, but I bet more than a couple kids are going to remember that one.

Dreary and unenlightening - and a failure by raising more questions than answers. Worse, it's uninspired writing, but then you'd know that if you ever read his books.

Philistines

Old man yells at cloud.

I bet this text works much better on the printed/displayed page than it does verbally.

But nonetheless this is pearls before swine, they want waving flags, some cheap Hallmark sentimentality. Not carefully crafted prose exposing a deeply-felt world view.

The Walmart/Costco/Comcast crowd he was addressing is not geared to absorb this material, they want little bytes, emotion-mc-nuggets.

Even if you disagree with his stance, I think it's a great text, and booing this is beyond pathetic and embarrassing.

I think this is a great speech. Very reminiscent of buddhist ideas to me. Lots of truth here.

Not big on paragraphs is he?

How is this dreary, a downer, or depressing? Maybe if he said "life sucks and then you die and there's nothing you can do about it" but it's about empowering yourself to not be like that. If he'd quit halfway through, then it would've been dreary.

I find this speech to be entirely too dismissive of the world around us. It essentially says happiness cannot be achieved externally, only internally. I submit it's a mixture of both. But regardless of my own thoughts about the merits of his mini-treatise, it's a profoundly misguided way to try and communicate with young people who, for the most part, are decades away from developing the perspective necessary to hear and understand what he's saying here.

I'm with 15. This is a great speech. Probably over the heads of 18-year-olds, although they'll think of it years later and be so glad to have had it in their heads that whole time.

@15: exactly. Not too young at all. Surely they must have been exposed to some Sartre or Camus in their AP English classes? I think this is a speech that would have resonated with me as a death-obsessed youngster. For me, a career in environmental and public health science proved a fitting venue to quell the existential angst (so far, at least).

@33,

Unless this was some sort of special graduation ceremony for exceptional students only, I can assure you that the vast majority of the kids there had zero exposure to Sartre or Camus, or any philosophy. I took AP/Honors courses throughout high school, and I read neither until I reached college.

@26 I doubt there were many Walmart people there. This is RHS.

30, I don't think it is at all "misguided" not to talk down to an audience of kids headed to the job market and high school. Perspective" is developed primarily by experience, but secondarily by the very kind of communication that he was offering -- adult, nuanced, and thoughtful. Specific merits of the speech aside, what would be "misguided" is to talk down to or lie to such an audience. They've already heard enough of the lie that "you can be whatever you want to be if you put your mind to it" or been encouraged to "party on and celebrate because that is what high school grads are supposed to do."

This is a great fucking speech and I wish I had heard it when I was 18 and taken it to heart, although it is impossible to do and I would have thought he was a shit talker just like all the folks in the audience and ignored him derisively.

I was there and agree with parts of posts 10, 21, 23, 30. Reading it on paper is different from experiencing it. Dismissing the audience as materialistic, "generation-yuppie" Costco members is too easy and intellectually self righteous. This was an audience for the most part of progressive, intelligent graduates of the class of 2013 and their equally progressive, intelligent and open-minded parents. While only a few heckled, I'm certain all understood why there were hecklers. I didn't heckle and the heckling made an extremely awkward speech even more awkward. However, less than 5minutes into planned 15 minute speech that was actually a 25minute ramble, we all wanted it to end.

Re-reading the paper version coupled with my memory of the delivery doesn't make me second-guess my reaction at all. Two friends of mine attended, and we are all voracious readers, progressive, open-minded and with about 25 years of post-secondary education all of us with advanced degrees. All of us thought the speech missed on multiple marks, was inappropriate and were more critical of the speech than the unfortunate heckling.

Maybe there is no recipe or formula for graduation speeches. However, I think speakers should accept an invitation with the responsibility to try to inspire and motivate the graduates in positive ways, for example to find happiness by contributing to the good of the world and humanity above self; paraphrasing President Kennedy, happiness is asking "not what the world can do for you but what you can do for the world." At best Guterson's organizing and delivery of his speech failed. At worst his topic failed too. It's always a gamble for the people choosing the speaker; they have no way of knowing what they will get. I felt bad for the graduates and the committee that selected him to speak.

His crime is being honest, serious and a bit too focused on his own shit

His ramble reads like a bright, obsessive, self involved depressed person with a captive audience. "Let me tell you how to find meaning and purpose." His message is framed with such negativity that listeners get worn out tracking on his rant. There are more positive, affirmative ways to deliver insightful reflective advice to graduating students. Too bad he didn't try a "coaching" perspective.

Half of my class was only 17 and we were so hungover that this would have just put folks to sleep. Did I mention that there was a 1,000 students in my class? Handing out diplomas took forever. I have no idea who the guest speaker was or said.

I like it! I bet it was hilarious to see everyone get all uncomfortable. It's still a good graduation speech.

What really is the point of a diatribe that is often negative and cautionary and does not hide its relationship to the author's insecurities. Perhaps there were pearls of wisdom that could be gleaned amid the pomp and crankiness. But at what cost?

Why do we think we need to remind the students of the perils of life with grim tales and common core assessments on genocide. Even within his tale of woe there were inaccuracies. While the Enlightenment did focus on individual liberties it also focused on the good of the "assembled People" and "assemblies of citizens" brought together for the greater good.

It does get hopeful at the end but we all know that the path to freedom and happiness may be better paved by words of encouragement and hope and not the images of an ominous world and a possible desperate existence hoisted on the students by a man with such grievous demons

Jack

As a member of the RHS class of 2013 I can say that, while I appreciated the speech from an intellectual perspective, I found it inappropriate for the occasion. Many of Guterson's ideas rang true to me personally and after reading the speech here I find it very interesting indeed. However you would have had to be sitting there along with every cap and gown wearing student to fully understand the cause of the heckling. The event represented a culmination of all our high school achievements and a celebration of the fact that we were moving out of our parents' arms into the the first phase of adulthood. Many of us had relatives who had flown many miles to experience this moment with us and our families. There were balloons, banners, and cheers just like you would find at any such event. From the moment Guterson stepped onto the stage he put an enormous rain cloud over the entire ceremony. He spoke in a dark and depressing monotone. His humor was undercut by the morbid and uninspired tone. When I heard the audience start booing and taunting I put my head in my hands, hoping that the awkwardness would end as soon as possible. His wisdom was drowned by the overall sense of discomfort and displeasure that had started to seep through the entire audience. When he started speaking about a malicious God I thought of all the religious members of the audience who came to celebrate their children and were instead given a condemnation of their spiritual beliefs. People had not come to this event to be challenged, they did not come to this event for intellectual discussion, they were not prepared to think about death and their own mortality. They were all there to celebrate and enjoy this moment of life, unhindered by questions concerning the ultimate dissatisfaction. I wish Guterson could have respected that.

dmetz has it down exactly. Two words. Inappropriate / self-indulgent.

"But nonetheless this is pearls before swine, they want waving flags, some cheap Hallmark sentimentality. Not carefully crafted prose exposing a deeply-felt world view.

The Walmart/Costco/Comcast crowd he was addressing is not geared to absorb this material, they want little bytes, emotion-mc-nuggets."

I was the student who stood up and shouted him down. I did not want platitudes from my commencement speech, but neither did I want 20 minutes of sustained criticism, unwanted assumption, and judgement about me and the way I live my life. I felt attacked. I understand why he delivered this speech - it was bold of him to spend this time on something truly deep rather than, as you say, hallmark platitudes, but the emotional assault was intense. I responded on a visceral level.

Unfortunately, the speech was devoid of understanding that sin largely determines our thoughts every minute of every day. That is, unless one acknowledges their sin and surrenders their will to Jesus. Only He can forgive and help us to repent. Only He can transform us from within and change the way we think fundamentally. This inner transformation provides for a true sense of peace and hope and turns us from selfish individualists to selfless servants of Christ. It's a difficult transformation to be sure, but it really isn't about "happiness". It is, however, about our intrinsic value to this world because of who God is, not allowing ourselves to be defined by our material possessions, our job, our net worth, our beauty, etc.

This is the hope that eludes the speaker, which is sad.

Unfortunately, the speech was devoid of understanding that sin largely determines our thoughts every minute of every day. That is, unless one acknowledges their sin and surrenders their will to Jesus. Only He can forgive and help us to repent. Only He can transform us from within and change the way we think fundamentally. This inner transformation provides for a true sense of peace and hope and turns us from selfish individualists to selfless servants of Christ. It's a difficult transformation to be sure, but it really isn't about "happiness". It is, however, about our intrinsic value to this world because of who God is, not allowing ourselves to be defined by our material possessions, our job, our net worth, our beauty, etc.

This is the hope that eludes the speaker, which is sad.

We were there and all felt it was a speech with a great deal of value.
As Dr Scott Peck said in The Road Less Traveled; "Life is difficult" and the sooner we accept this the better our chance is for a happier life. He asked the class of 2013 to wake up and get in touch with your thoughts, not the thoughts and dreams of others.

My child and her senior class listened well. Impatient probably uneducated and distracted parents were unable to sit for a few minutes and listen respectfully. A sad commentary.

I'll also chime in as one of the RHS '13ers who experienced the speech firsthand. I very much admire that Guterson told us what he believed we most needed, and perhaps deserved, to hear, even if it meant not placating the raucous (and probably inebriated) parents that heckled him. It was certainly unorthodox as far as commencement speeches go, and he did pose some pretty "heavy" (though valid) points that I'm sure made some people understandably uncomfortable. At times, Guterson may have come off as overly-aggressive in this respect, and I think that's where he garnered a lot of this blown-up negativity towards his speech. (I'm not at all religious, but even I was a bit taken aback by his snippet about a Creator. Some people mistakenly took it as preachy.) Regardless, Guterson very clearly came into the speech with the intention of reaching out intellectually to the students (!) he was addressing, and he did so brazenly. His speech resonated with me, as did his honesty. Was his tone a bit off for such an otherwise pleasant evening? Maybe, but the guy writes novels for a living, not speeches; I can cut him some slack there.

Several of the other speakers at the event mentioned the strength of "community" at RHS; as a parent in the grandstands I found myself happily swept-up in the idea that the RHS community is really something special. But the heckling gives the lie to this. How can community be strong when an invited speaker is shouted-down just because the message was not entirely uplifting? There’s no tolerance for unhappy truths or diverse points of view here – this is a crowd, not a community.

Too long winded/repetitious for a commencement speech, he needed a good editor. That said, in many ways it is incomplete: he left out the "On the other hand..." type of comments--often personal and humorous--that relate to particular events that the graduating class experienced while students, as well. In many ways, this reads like a book review or in part an NA or AA self-help session...

There is happiness!
And we can attain it in this life!
Happy is that people whose God is the Lord. I invite you to try Him and who will find happiness for time and throughout eternity……….I dare you!

@45 - People who believe in talking carpets, magic beans and the rest of that God stuff deserve disrespect. They are delusional, and are the cause of much of the social distress on the planet, certainly in this country. Assertion-based reality is destructive, and causes people to yell when they hear something they don't want to hear.

@23: "a failure by raising more questions than answers"

The sort of intellectually incurious who heckle, I see.

Life is a series of questions that raise more questions. Anyone who can encourage someone else to think more and decide they know all less is entirely more useful to this world than you.

Speaking of hecklers, Patton Owsalt absolutely KILLED in this essay about joke-stealing, heckling, and rape jokes.

http://www.pattonoswalt.com/index.cfm?pa…

Well this says a lot about the Roosevelt crowd, or wait, community. Which is it really? Maybe next year they can invite Justin Beiber; his messages may hit closer to home.

Well this says a lot about the Roosevelt crowd, or wait, community. Which is it really? Maybe next year they can invite Justin Beiber; his messages may hit closer to home

@38 For a person with an "advanced degree" your critique of the speech is quite vague. What I read in here is that we, as individuals, need to think beyond ourselves, that this materialistic culture stacks things against us and that we can transcend all this and really be happy. I'm sure if he included his specific path to happiness, he'd be criticized for that too, but it seems to have a lot in common with Buddhism. That he was heckled by others, including parents seeking something upbeat ("inspire and motivate') in "progressive" Seattle is unsurprising. Like Willie Smith being heckled at Bumbershoot reading his story "Spiderfuck" after he killed with it at Naropa. This is the same consciousness as political correctness and it's a poor substitute for critical thinking. THAT is what he was trying to get students to do (& parents as well.) Good for him. When we take responsibility for everything that happens to us, it leads to the path of real freedom and happiness. As for the alleged failure of his speech, when's the last time a high school commencement speech got this kind of attention?

Just as the Buddha taught:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Noble_…

Just as the Buddha taught:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Noble_…

*sorry about the double post...

I think we should take heart that people have reacted, even negatively, to what David had the courage and faith to challenge them to do: be responsible. The initial reaction, and the depth of many of blogs, is proof positive that he was successful in touching the part of a person’s soul needed to initiate change. Even the student who heckled him admirably posted a thoughtful blog; even if he is still mad, he will think long about what he hear; I am more worried about those who felt nothing. David did not step into the arena for his own glory, or to look good, or to be popular; he stepped into the arena to challenge the gigantic temptations, distractions and monetary interests that pervade and control many of our lives. He stepped into the arena for the benefit of those to whom he was speaking with the faith in them that they are capable of great things and of achieving happiness. He walked the talk, he acted in accordance with his beliefs and wisdom, for the good of those around him. The words he spoke were not of a politician or salesman, they were the words of the profits, we would be wise to listen. One can be cynical; but that is real courage, that is real love, and that is the real leadership so lacking in the shallow, consumer focused world in which we live. You are the difference you make in the world; and that difference will live forever, make the world a better place for your existence and happiness will become you. The students of Roosevelt would do well to reflect on this occasion with the words of your namesake in:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

the talk is on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yF6Ahdwu_…

The problem with this speech, for me, is that it it really is for a different audience.

I have heard very similar, almost identical, presentations in Buddhist circles. The difference is that the audience has, at a minimum, a year of consistent meditation practice, and has around 100 hours of study(usually under a teacher).

In traditional Tibetan practice, you would have around 1500 hours of preliminary practice just to start studying this stuff.

For me, this speech was like a quantum physicist talking about cutting edge theory(with full jargon and math) to a high school physics class.

It's great because it's the truth.

While he makes a couple of important points, this is a self-absorbed, rambling speech which basically asks people not to think so much of themselves and to be more intentional. Perhaps he was trying to be ironic.

In reading this, it's a very thought provoking speech. I can understand that it was not well received. I think the speaker fails to acknowledge that society and culture have places for ceremony and celebration. Commencement is one such place and the speaker fails to tune his message to that occasion.

This speech caused me to recall a commencement speech that answers some of this speaker's contentions from a place of optimism. That was the 1994 commencement address of then Vice-President Al Gore to the graduating class of Harvard University.

http://clinton2.nara.gov/WH/EOP/OVP/spee…

or video:

http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/57692…

I would have loved to have been there. I think it took courage to present thoughts and ideas such as he did. I can't think of a better definition for the word commencement than what was proposed by Guterson.
Congratulations to those that didn't boo and actually listened.

Now I don't want to here anymore about that so-called "global warming"! Hoot! It's just a myth made up by them librils trying to raise my taxes! And now they're saying the automobile causes global warming? The automobile? First they came for my guns. Then they came for my clam gun and made me pay a fee! Now those librils want to take away my car! Am I supposed to ride PUBLIC transportation? Ride the shame train with the poors? Have you ever seen Al Gore on a bus? He's fat! He lives in a mansion with a big electric bill and he drives an SUV. Libril hypocrisy! Libril hypocrisy! And don't give me any of that so-called "science" elitism either. When it comes to that so-called "global warming" there are plenty of real scientists who disagree. I saw it on the teevee!

I agree with those who thought the speech to be self-indulgent and unsuited to the occasion. "Schmacky" and "mattini" have especially good points. The fact that everyone dies is not especially enlightening.
But most importantly, a man approaching 60, newly wary of his imminent old age, has no place telling 18-year-olds (or anyone) what will or will not make them happy. Travel, for example: escapism, sure? But plenty of people find it more fulfilling than siting around moping about death.
As a 22-year-old who has had more than enough mortality and sadness to deal with from a young age, I think that everyone must come to terms with their own death and happiness on their own terms and at the right time. We all live different lives and we all find our own ways to be happy. Guterson, please don't force the product of your years of self-examination upon others.
Those with whom this speech's philosophy might resonate are also those who don't need it and might be upset by emotions it brings up, having already gone through such introspection and/or depression. (keep in mind also that the onset of mental illness such as depression and schizophrenia often occurs around the late teens/early 20s, so if his ramblings have actually affected students, he can't have helped..)
Guterson is indeed far to dismissive of the world and all it has to offer-he sounds like a depressed, ascetic, regretful, monk-like dude.
As deserved as the booing might have been, though, it was rather uncivilized and not to be condoned.

*that 'to' was meant to be 'too,' as in, "too dismissive of the world."

@79 "But most importantly, a man approaching 60, newly wary of his imminent old age, has no place telling 18-year-olds (or anyone) what will or will not make them happy."

Yet this is what happens at almost every graduation ceremony in America.

I was there for this speech though I wasn't graduating. It wasn't particularly dense or unintelligible nor did I find it to be overwhelmingly depressing. However, it was depressing and one of the graduaties (I'm not convinced that that is a word) shouted "You don't know us!" Which drew an... Interesting response. I loved the speech, I thought it had the potential to be very moving to a few in the crowd who felt as though they were stuck in depression. The speech was depressing for those that went in as happy and eager graduaties but those were not the target of the speech, the speech was targeted at the people for whom the standard graduation speech would be depressing and scary, for those that can't seem to escape life. I, personally thought it was the most effective graduation speech.

The man was not a public speaker and didn't know how to draw in a crowd but he also didn't make it dry and unintelligible. Everyone knew what he was saying.

I spoke with a friend today, telling her that I'd like to read the entire speech. I wish I would have been there to hear it as well. As we know, the written word and spoken word can be two quite different things. I wouldn't expect him to be a phenomenal public speaker. In fact, if he were an unpolished public speaker - it might be an asset to the content. I like the speech, but my perspective is from the foundation of someone who is 46 years old. Seattle often is seen as a smart, well-mannered and inclusive place that appreciates all sorts of diversity. Just listen. Think. Observe. Be. Sounds like those ideas may have threatened some in the crowd.

I spoke with a friend today, telling her that I'd like to read the entire speech. I wish I would have been there to hear it as well. As we know, the written word and spoken word can be two quite different things. I wouldn't expect him to be a phenomenal public speaker. In fact, if he were an unpolished public speaker - it might be an asset to the content. I like the speech, but my perspective is from the foundation of someone who is 46 years old. Seattle often is seen as a smart, well-mannered and inclusive place that appreciates all sorts of diversity. Just listen. Think. Observe. Be. Sounds like those ideas may have threatened some in the crowd.

Speaking truth to power is courageous and necessary in situations of oppression. But when one is not speaking to entrenched power, when one is speaking person to person, reflecting on the complex mystery we call being human, truth is more effective when used not as a weapon of assault, but as an invitation to expand the heart beyond itself toward the other.

I was in the audience last Wednesday night. It taught me that the art of rhetoric is ancient but not moribund, and we cannot afford to ignore it, no matter how “true” and hard-won our insights might be. Consider these six true statements and their impact on their audience:

1. David Guterson, Roosevelt High School Graduation 2013:

“So if you’re distressed right now by all of this talk about death and God and the universe, be glad that you’re able to feel this distress, because without it, you’d have no hope for happiness. Your distress, your dissatisfaction, is the starting place, and the earlier you acknowledge and accept it, the better.” “And most of all, don’t settle for unhappiness. I want to tell you that happiness is possible, and that you don’t have to be despairing and afraid. But it’s up to you, to each of you, to seek out the wisdom that happiness requires. Not learning but wisdom, which is something else altogether.”

2. Roosevelt graduate at Guterson’s address, impolitely interrupting Guterson, true, but nevertheless speaking with amazing respect, courage, and poignancy: “You don’t know anything about us.”

3. David Foster Wallace, “This Is Water” commencement address at Kenyon College, 2005: “But if you really learn how

to pay attention, then you will know there are other options. It will actually be within your power to experience a crowded, hot, slow, consumer-hell type situation as not only meaningful, but sacred, on fire with the same force that made the stars: love, fellowship, the mystical oneness of all things deep down. Not that that mystical stuff is necessarily true. The only thing that's capital-T True is that you get to decide how you're gonna try to see it. This, I submit, is the freedom of a real education, of learning how to be well-adjusted. You get to consciously decide what has meaning and what doesn't. You get to decide what to worship.”

4. “Die before you die.” Muhammad, but also Jesus, Buddha, Rabia, and many, many other mystics, from all traditions, speaking to seasoned selves, fully developed egos, of the necessary death of the ego or little self to open in compassion and love.

5. Emily, a teenager, at her mother’s funeral: “My mother taught me that ‘happiness is not the goal, it’s the way.’”

6. Proverb from a Hindu saint: “The highest form of worship is simply to be happy.”

I know which ones of these six truth-talkers I would gladly listen to for hours to grow in wisdom.

Apart from the tone and subject matter of the speech, it actually reads as rather longwinded and repetitive. While I don't agree with heckling -- especially directed at a guest speaker -- I'm not surprised it happened. Guterson is also apparently terrible with kids and a nightmare as a teacher.

I am amazed and profoundly disappointed by the reaction of those parents who booed and jeered David Guterson. That reaction is profoundly anti-intellectual, anti-philosophical, and illiberal in spirt, not to mention patronizing and demeaning of the young adults who were graduating. I don't agree with everything in the speech, but this is a speech in the tradition of Emerson and Thoreau, along with some existentialism, Stoicism, and perhaps some Eastern (Buddhist and Taoist) ideas of selflessness. Even if you disagree with the speech, what could possibly justify the heckling he received; what could possibly justify such willful and aggressive anti-intellectualism, such an infantile effort to shut down the marketplace of idea? Nothing. I urge those parents and some of the commentators here to read some philosophy sometime.

"Actual happiness always looks pretty squalid in comparison with the over-compensations for misery. And, of course, stability isn't nearly so spectacular as instability. And being contented has none of the glamour of a good fight against misfortune, none of the picturesqueness of a struggle with temptation, or a fatal overthrow by passion or doubt. Happiness is never grand."
Aldous Huxley, Brave New World

He never met the students where they're at. He only yelled at them for being where they're at. Then he blew the smoke of some elementary popular spiritual teachings into their lungs instead of graciously offering a hit.

They were so fortunate to have these 'pearls of wisdom' from David Guterson. He should have been honored with more respect, but it appears it went over the heads of some. He doesn't mince words, and he was truly offering a gift to these young grads.

What's that saying about prophets in their hometown?