Life's harsh realities should not intrude on every moment of optimism

Ron Chimelis, The Republican By Ron Chimelis, The Republican The Republican
on June 03, 2012 at 1:17 PM, updated June 03, 2012 at 1:24 PM
2012 UMass CommencementStudents cheer during the University of Massachusetts-Amherst 2012 commencement on May 11. The address by Chancellor Robert C. Holub warned of the challenges ahead.

Maybe those lists of endangered species should add another life form.

The optimist.

Thinking tomorrow might be better than today, or at least no worse, is so yesterday. Or yesteryear.

University of Massachusetts chancellor Robert C. Holub chose commencement to warn graduates not to get their hopes up.

"Your fortunes in the economy may rise and fall. Over the course of your life, they probably will rise and fall,'' the chancellor said.


"You may be on top one day and struggling the next .... still, your education is your own.''

All that was left out was Holub reminding our eager young graduates that we're all going to die someday.

If I'm a UMass grad in the audience, I am listening to the chancellor's warning and asking why I paid for all this education, just to get squashed like a bug in the real world.

It is hard to criticize Holub for telling the truth. Taken literally, his words are indisputable.

My problem with it is not just that graduation is not the moment to look at life in its most harsh, literal terms. Holub recognized as much.

It's that I don't think it's very healthy to live life that way in general.

Do not misunderstand. In a world of optimists and pessimists, I have always aligned myself with the P-Boys.

It still bothers me when people of influence sum up their vision of the future like this: It could be bad, you know.

Yet that seems to be the slogan, not the exception in 2012 America. This is why Holub's words, which took second billing at commencement to a tremendous speech by newsman Ted Koppel, have gone either unnoticed or unquestioned.

Holub inadvertently hit on what bothers me about current society. He disguised a cynical message as blunt candor.

What also bothers me is that his warning of a bumpy ride probably resonated with his audience. As the chancellor indicated, today's 22-year-olds are not so easily fooled into think a rosy future awaits.

Many have begun job searches and found dead ends. Others have seen their parents or friends butt heads with life and come out second best.

It also speaks to the assumption that most graduates are looking at the future in purely financial terms.

Had John F. Kennedy made his famous speech ("Ask not what your country can do for you'') in today's climate, I worry what the reaction might be.

In 1961, it sparked a generation of idealist, activists, Peace Corps volunteers and so on. Some of that still exists today, but it is being lost (or worse, disparaged) in a world where all generations are asking, "What's in it for me?''

Optimism has been mistaken as a synonym for naivete. Not only is that a hard way to look at life, the alternative of pessimism has the power of becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Most stock market experts, for instance, identify widespread fear of a market plunge as a reason it may happen.

Walk into most any office. The people treated as most annoying are often not the grouches, but the minority of cheerful, upbeat folks who actually enjoy what's going on around them.

America was built on creativity and diversity, but a crucial ingredient was motivation. That only comes when people, often but not exclusively young people, put aside the cruel reality that it might not work out all the time - or even at all.

Holub is the outgoing chancellor. That's "outgoing'' as in leaving, not cheerful.

He has done many good things at UMass. It still unnerves me that his message to the Class of 2012 sounded like a rewrite of Barack Obama's 2008 motto.

"Yes, you can. But don't count on it.''

Looking at the future with trepidation is in. Believing it will all work out is so out that it doesn't even have a place at events designed specifically to celebrate it, like commencements.

The UMass graduating class has been warned not to get its hopes up. I liked our chances better when the message was to plunge our energies into making things better, not brace for the fact we can't.