Elizabeth, thank you for your thoughtful invitation and kind introduction. And, again, allow me to congratulate you on your extraordinary career and service to the University.

When your faculty and Dean Riley invited me to address you at commencement, I was deeply honored and wondered what I might say to you.

I sought guidance from some of your faculty, and learned that some of the themes that define you are connection, service, and meaning . . .

. . . I learned that you feel connected to each other and to the world at large in ways that some of us never dreamed we could – with all of human knowledge at your fingertips . . .

. . . not satisfied with simply absorbing what you are taught, actively reaching out online; spending time exploring the world and seeking to understand and affirm your place in it.

I also learned that you aspire to belong not to a particular group or nation, but rather to the entire human race and to the earth and universe.

And I learned that your quest is not only an intellectual or emotional stretching of the bounds, but ultimately a moral one, as you seek to find personal fulfillment in service to others.

Indeed, as diligent students of the law, you have dedicated yourselves to the task of facilitating the just and peaceful resolution of disputes, which is truly a moral calling; a moral obligation.

And since the legal profession strives to resolve conflict, much as presidents and CEOs do most of the time, it occurred to me that I might have something to offer after 15 years on the job.

I even hoped that what I have learned through my experience would enable me to contribute some value to the lines of reasoning that have shaped American jurisprudence.

In the spirit of full disclosure, you should know that I am not a student of jurisprudence. However, I do have some experience with the vicissitudes of our human condition and I am always hopeful that I might contribute to the common good.

Thus, my goal this afternoon is more modest, and what I want to share with you are some thoughts that I hope may assist you in the practice of law. I will begin by making a brief reference to three books that have influenced my thinking. And I will then shift the focus of my remarks to the importance of understanding why we must seek a fully informed perspective of each and every situation we confront as professionals.

The three books that I want to tell you about are these:

The first is Dorothy Rabinowitz’s “No Crueler Tyranny,” a title drawn from a 1742 admonition of the Baron of Montesquieu, Charles-Louis De Secondat: "There is no crueler tyranny than that which is perpetrated under the shield of law and in the name of justice." [i]

Allow me to repeat that: "There is no crueler tyranny than that which is perpetrated under the shield of law and in the name of justice." In her book, Ms. Rabinowitz’s examines the child sex abuse prosecutions of the 1980s and 1990s.[ii]  Suffice it to say that it is a harrowing lesson of false accusation, the misuse of the power of the law and of the failure to seek fully informed perspectives.

The second book is Thomas Sowell’s “The Quest for Cosmic Justice,” a fascinating title in itself; which reminds us that some of the ideas that we most cherish, like justice and equality, ultimately have far more meanings than can be agreed upon and, thus, serve as an example of limited perspectives.[iii]

The third book is John Dunn’s “The Cunning of Unreason: Making Sense of Politics,” an intriguing title – “The Cunning of Unreason” – which begs the question: how can unreason be cunning?[iv] It is a dense, but admirably written book that aptly develops the concept of human partiality, which is not only the basis of all politics but also of all conflict. And, of course, whenever human partiality rears its head, you can be sure there is again a failure of perspective.

Now, I do not mean to suggest that perspective is the be all and end all to our human condition, but it is at the core of much of what we do or perhaps should do. And each of those three books illustrates in its own way the importance of seeking fully informed perspectives on whatever issue we may be dealing with.

Thus, for the balance of this address, I want to tell you why perspective is important to us. I will approach it from three, shall we say, different angles.

Let’s start with human partiality. This concept may best be described as the tendency to favor a particular opinion, worldview, or even group of people over all others. Much like prejudice or chauvinism, human partiality places blinders on our perspectives, creating a kind of tunnel vision.  Let me give you an example of what I mean.

A few years ago, a commercial was filmed in London for a prominent newspaper. This ad was so successful, it was described in some detail by John Steel in his book, Truth, Lies and Advertising.   I quote:

". . . this commercial was shot in grainy black and white, more like a documentary than a commercial.”[v]

"It opens on a slow-motion scene of a rough-looking skinhead sprinting down the sidewalk of a dull terrace in an old industrial town.  A car slows menacingly at the end of the street, perhaps in pursuit. A woman, standing on her doorstep, flinches as the skinhead runs past her…”[vi]

"We now see the same scene from a different angle. The skinhead darts past the woman, and this time we see that he's headed toward an old man, who is wearing a long overcoat and hat and carrying a briefcase.  The old man raises his briefcase to defend himself as the thug makes a grab for him.”[vii]

"The commercial fades to a third scene, another replay of the same action, but this time shot from high up on a building across the street.  We see that right above the old man, who is completely oblivious to the fact, a large tray of bricks is being hoisted up the side of a building. It is swaying dangerously, and the skinhead has spotted it…races down the street…grabs the old man and pushes him back against the wall to protect him as the bricks crash to the sidewalk."[viii]

It makes you think, doesn't it?

The image of a skinhead racing towards an old man is itself threatening, and perhaps in line with our own brand of human partiality. So consider the potential outcome if we had allowed that partiality to limit our view. Without all three different perspectives considered, you easily could have been misled to an erroneous and negative conclusion and, possibly, to an unfortunate or misguided action.

Each of us sees things differently, and each of us develops different points of view. That is the essence of human partiality. It is helpful to have the benefit of multiple perspectives, because a single perspective is often the wrong one.

As a sailor, I can tell you that this is also the case in navigation - namely in knowing how to find your position on a nautical chart or map. So let us now look at perspective through the angle of marine navigation:

Let us say that you don't know where you are, but that you have a map of the area and that you are able to identify a prominent feature, both on the map and on the ground.

If you then take a compass bearing from that feature, and draw a line on the map reflecting that information, you will then know that you are somewhere along that line, although you will not know exactly where along the line.

To obtain your exact position, you need to employ a technique called triangulation -- a simple navigational approach used to help you pinpoint your location.

The technique requires that you identify at least two landmarks that are visible, obtain their relative compass bearings, and transfer them to the map or chart by drawing two pencil lines.

The straight pencil lines that you draw will cross, and the point where they cross "pinpoints" your exact location; it gives you, in the vernacular of navigation, a “fix” on your position.

That is triangulation! And it is a practical exercise in simple geometry, as I am sure you will remember.

If you can observe other features and include their relative bearings in your calculations, you will have added degrees of certainty.

Navigational triangulation is very much like obtaining separate perspectives on an issue, because, as a rule, in geometry and in life, the more perspectives we obtain, the closer we are likely to approximate the truth of the matter.

The third angle on perspective is this: Everything has its price. Everything has its price. This was my mother’s most frequent reminder; a sort of philosophical musing to get me to reflect on how something I wanted to do might actually affect me.

She was essentially reminding me that in anything we do, there is a risk to be taken, a price to pay. Indeed, we take hundreds, perhaps thousands of risks every day. It’s impossible to avoid them. Most are quite small – a loose button on a shirt, a yellow stoplight, or leaving an umbrella at home on a cloudy day.  And for each of these risks we do a brief, often-subconscious cost/benefit analysis. What do I gain if I take the risk and it pays off, what do I lose if it fails. Essentially, we are asking, “What is the price?”

However, anytime there is possibility of failure or loss, risk often provokes anxiety, which sometimes leads to analysis paralysis – a condition by which we are brought to a standstill of inaction.

But we should always remember that risk and anxiety are two quite different conditions. A simple story will illustrate my point.

The Surgeon General tells us that cigarettes kill more than 440-thousand Americans each year,[ix] and automobiles kill more than 30-thousand people per year.[x] But, no one seems to be afraid of cigarettes or automobiles.

However, according to the Deputy Director of the National Institutes of Health, everyone is afraid of sharks.

It is estimated that there are about 70 shark attacks worldwide each year.[xi] The National Center for Health Statistics doesn't even keep a record of shark attacks because there are so few. (They know how many people are killed by bee stings, but not by shark bites.)[xii] The best guess is that sharks kill only two or three people each year in the United States.

But, the fact is that if you went to a crowded beach and shouted "shark" - everyone would race out of the water, jump into a car, light up a cigarette, and drive home!

How nice it would be if we could keep risk and anxiety into their proper perspective. Where reason and calm prevail, there is always optimism and much that can be accomplished for our common good.

Taking risks is a necessary part of life to enable opportunities. Indeed, few things predict your potential for success more than your tolerance for risk. That is why we say that opportunity favors the prepared mind. And that is why if you don’t ask, the answer is always “no!”

The three stories I have just shared with you, and the three books I referenced earlier, remind us of the importance of looking at every situation from several vantage points . . . they remind us that human partiality can lead us to be misguided . . . that we can be “lost at sea” without a triangulated perspective . . . and that calm assessments of situations, based on relevant and accurate information, will help us avoid falling prey to anxiety or analysis paralysis.

Indeed, those three stories remind us of the centrality of perspective in human affairs. They tell us that human partiality must be examined again and again, and that when we do that well, a common and shared perspective may be achieved.

And that, as surely you already have learned, is never easy!

Let me close with the perspectives that link us here today: Today you complete an important chapter of your life and so do I. Today, you celebrate your legal education and start your professional careers. Today, I have given my 116^th and final commencement address as president of this university and soon I begin my own version of a new career.

And so, as we both contemplate our respective futures, permit me to offer you some advice drawn from the perspective of Mary Schmick:[xiii]

Law School class of 2014, “Wear sunscreen.  If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it.  The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now.” 

• Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard.  Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.[xiv]
• You are special – just like everyone else. Remember that your planet is not center of the solar system; your solar system is not the center of the galaxy; your galaxy is not the center of the universe.  And since astrophysicists assure us that the universe has no center…you cannot be it.[xv]
• Get plenty of calcium and be kind to your knees. You’ll miss them when they’re gone.[xvi]
•  “Remember compliments you receive.  Forget the insults.  If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.”[xvii]
• Don’t expect anyone else to support you.  Maybe you have a trust fund.  Maybe you’ll have a wealthy spouse.  But you never know when either one might run out.[xviii]
• “Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it.  Advice is a form of nostalgia.  Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it’s worth.”[i]
• “But trust me on the sunscreen.”

  • ---

    [i] Schmich, Ibid

Congratulations!