A mathematician, two musicians, and a rabbi walk into a ... (Graduation 2017)

My precious students*: Earlier this week, I was reading my notes from your first day of school at JCHS when I encouraged you to avoid the kinds of intellectual blindness and emotional deafness that reflect a fixed way of experiencing the world. 

Also, I encouraged you to seek out classmates who are profoundly different than you are -- so you might learn from and be inspired by those differences. And to discover that one other person at JCHS who has exactly what you are lacking and to discover that one other person at JCHS who needs exactly what only you can share. As we heard from your classmates this afternoon, you have actively embraced each of these. 

In a moment I will share my gift for your graduation -- a mash-up mixed from one mathematician, two musicians, and a rabbi. But just a few more thoughts about your first day of high school. 
My charge to you on the first day of high school was drawn from the faculty’s 2013 summer reading (yes, even the faculty has summer reading!), Paul Tough’s How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character. His book pushed us as educators to reexamine the conventional definition of success rooted merely in wealth or celebrity or power, toward seeing success as fulfillment rooted in virtue, resilience, and wonder. 

For me, Tough seems to be echoing Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel who believed conventional standards of success have blinded us to experiencing wonder and deafened us to the rich sounds of a meaningful life. 

Heschel himself seemed informed by Talmud in general and Pirke Avot in particular. One particular passage pushes us to identify wisdom in those who learn from everyone, wealth in those who appreciate their own unique portion, and honor in those who honor others. (Avot 4:1)

In Heschel’s words, “The beginning of our happiness lies in the understanding that life without wonder is not worth living.” Heschel describes “wonder” as the capacity to experience radical amazement through the experiences of everyday life. 

Dear graduates of 2017, you have mastered the bridge of high school and are well on your way! Much of your success as a class comes from your capacity to integrate from different areas. For some of you this has been a mash-up of science and theater, for others humanities and athletics, or creative arts and Jewish Studies, or music and math.

Reflecting that, my gift to you today is a mash-up mixed from one mathematician, two musicians, and a rabbi. Carry them with you across the next bridge of your journey. 

The mathematician is Grigori Yakovlevich Perelman who astounded the math world about 10 years ago by solving the Poincare Conjecture. The first musician is Joshua Bell who first performed at Carnegie Hall when he was in high school and is the celebrated director of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. The second musician is Chance the Rapper. And the rabbi is Abraham Joshua Heschel. He not only survived the Holocaust but also lived in every stream of Jewish life - Orthodox, Reform, and Conservative. Heschel was as comfortable marching with Dr. Martin Luther King as he was composing Yiddish poems. 

A Mathematician. The math problem solved by Perelman was about the geometry of multi-dimensional spaces and their impact on quantum physics. It was baffling experts for 100 years. That Perelman solved the Poincare Conjecture was astonishing enough. But Perelman also surprised people by turning down not one, but two, separate $1,000,000 prizes intended for the person who solved Poincare. He also turned down faculty offers from Princeton and UC Berkeley. 

When asked why he rejected the wealth and fame, Perelman answered, “I have all that I need.” Ultimately, Perelman became more famous for rejecting wealth and fame than for solving the math problem.

The respected educator Diana Senechal addressed the fuss over Perelman in her article, The Cult of Success, asking why so much chatter about his Perelman’s motives? What bothered people, it seemed to her, was his violation of the social codes of success. Social codes that superficially idealize money, status, and appearances. The public could not accept that Perelman rejected conventional measures of success and achievement simply because he was satisfied with the astonishingly, amazing feat of solving one of the world’s most perplexing math problems.

Perelman’s resilience and nearly inexhaustible curiosity were not “success enough” in the eyes of many. His outright rejection of money and prestige provoked their ire swallowing up their admiration.

Precious graduates of 2017, learn the Perelman lesson, don’t let convention drown out your capacity to define success on your own terms.

One Musician. Joshua Bell is a world famous violinist who plays concerts on a Stradivarius valued at more than $4M. Working with a journalist and film crew, Bell was part of an experiment to test the extent to which we ignore extraordinary wonders available in daily life. To explore this, Bell disguised himself with a baseball cap and went busking in a Washington DC Metro station, where he played a complex 45-minute concert of Bach music. It was spectacular.

Nearly 1,100 people were filmed walking past Bell that morning. How many stopped to listen? Seven. Right, seven out of 1,100. Virtually every time a child walked past Bell, the kid tried slowing down to listen, but an adult pulled them along past Bell. (Good reminder that many of us lose our capacity to experience wonder as we get older.)

Bell had an open violin case collecting gifts. But despite his wonderful artistry, Bell was seen as nearly worthless that morning. One adult actually recognized Bell so she put $20 in his violin case. From everyone else -- 1,100 people -- he collected $12.17. [Check out this remarkable story from journalist Gene Weingarten]. 

If Bell had been playing the same music on the same instrument at Kennedy Center or another concert hall, ticket sales would have exceeded $100,000. But without a fancy concert hall, or an attentive audience, or wearing concert dress, even Bell and his wonderful music were treated as worth-less. 

Precious graduates of 2017, learn the Bell lesson, don’t let the speed of everyday life blind you to the extraordinary wonders available in it. Treasure these wonders!

A Second Musician. The summer between your 9th and 10th grade, Chance the Rapper released his remix of the Arthur cartoon theme song. It topped out at #1 the day after it was released. 

Listen to your heartListen to the beatListen to the rhythmThe rhythm of the streetOpen up your eyesOpen up your ears 

And I said Hey!What a wonderful kind of dayAnd I say hey!Heyyy!It could be so wonderful

Learn the Chance the Rapper lesson, open up your eyes, open up your ears to have a wonderful kind of day.

A Rabbi. Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote something similar, “Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement, [to] get up in the morning and look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted. Everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible.” Take nothing for granted. What you otherwise miss could be so wonderful.

A mathematician, two musicians, and a rabbi walk into a graduation to teach his lesson. It is best summed up by another thought from Heschel: "Never once in my life did I ask God for success or wisdom or power or fame. I asked for wonder, and [God] gave it to me.”

My precious students: Listen for wonder and you will hear it; Look for wonder and you will see it; Ask for wonder and you will receive it.

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*My charge to Class of 2017 at Jewish Community High School of the Bay (@jchsofthebay) was delivered June 8, 2017 at Congregation Emanu-El in San Francisco.