THE POINT IS-BALANCE
Rodell, Fred
The point is— balance by FRED RODELL In all the torrent of commencement oratory during the recent graduation season, Fred Rodell's commencement address in verse was easily the most uncommonly...
...Thereon embossed For him who 'neath the headstone slept: "What I gave I have...
...What I saved I lost...
...So you who covet more degrees Are not immune from this disease, Which is contagious To doctors, lawyers, priests, and preachers, To scientists and high-school teachers And college sages...
...He who lives somber, grim, and solemn As an obituary column Dries up his juices...
...The point is— balance by FRED RODELL In all the torrent of commencement oratory during the recent graduation season, Fred Rodell's commencement address in verse was easily the most uncommonly refreshing we saw...
...Not, then, for riches from your labors Nor to keep face with faceless neighbors, Employ your talents For work—but none the less for play...
...Today a thinking person's thoughts Are jeopardized by astronauts Who spin in space, By bombs whose thermonuclear heat May presently make obsolete The human race...
...The point is—balance...
...Rodell, a graduate of Haverford at age 19 a quarter of a century ago, was invited to deliver the traditional address at the commencement exercises of his alma mater, which graduated his son, Michael, in the same ceremony...
...Go to it...
...You, their descendants, Might likewise, at your graduation, Proclaim your private Declaration Of Independence...
...Practitioners of the professions Make—learnedly—the same concessions To keep them warm...
...If such old saws appeal to you You may become a succes fou At thirty-seven, With well-bred kids in private school, A tennis court, a swimming pool, In Wayne or Devon...
...But still the set commencement speech Will take peculiar pains to preach The proper attitudes, With unsolicited advice On making good and being nice— In pious platitudes...
...An old New England Calvinist Undoubtedly would damn the twist With all its twitches...
...His books include Fifty-five Men: The Story of the Constitution, Woe Unto You, Lawyers, and A Political History of the Supreme Court from 1700 to 1955.—The Editors...
...The men who made our country free Graduated to liberty...
...Squander, don't hoard for some hereafter, Your gifts of grace and love and laughter...
...And though the maxim says I should, I never do today what could Be done tomorrow...
...Why make, and never roll in, hay...
...For me—no thanks...
...To say all this is not to say That you should goof your life away On beer and skittles...
...I deprecate the cult Whose members annually insult Their junior betters With inspirational cliches, Here and there interspersed with praise Of arts and letters...
...In horror, he would turn and fly From radio, TV, hi-fi— But he burned witches...
...Pursue it...
...what I spent I kept...
...But he whom money holds as slave Ought contemplate an ancient grave...
...Rodell, a professor of law at Yale, has written frequently for The Progressive and a number of other publications, including The Saturday Review, Harper's, and Life...
...Self-mired in the accepted mold, He never lea»ns until too old What he is losing...
...Accumulating things material, Keeping his image rich, imperial, His life grinds by In three-fourths toil and one-fourth leisure While ulcers gnaw his little pleasure The price is high...
...Despite Polonius, Hamlet's friend, I never hesitate to lend Nor blush to borrow...
...Good luck...
...Today, forsaking planes and cars, They plan a vehicle to Mars With men to man it, While Mars, whose legacy is martial And internationally impartial, Threatens our planet...
...Early to bed and early rise May make you healthy, wealthy, wise...
...Nor is it only business folk Who bow their shoulders to the yoke That reads "Conform...
...A penny saved, a penny earned— A lesson I have never learned— Is fine—for banks...
...Not mine...
...In Jeffersonian pursuit Of happiness, no disrepute Inheres...
...A regimen of fun and frolic Will probably produce the colic— For lack of victuals...
...Yet he who swallows orthodoxy Perforce must live his life by proxy— At others' choosing...
...No Quakerly concern for quality Forbids a measure of frivolity— Which has its uses...
Vol. 26 • August 1962 • No. 8
