who doesn't need a little inspiration on a friday?

so in searching the annals of your blogs for photos of your gorgeous selves to put alongside your responses about perfect bodies (this has proved very difficult) i found this at morgan's let me help you help me. and i had to pass it on.

it is an excerpt of the commencement speech given to this year's graduating class at the university of portland. given by Paul Hawken (author, environmentalist, and entrepreneur). 

the following are the bits that morgan found most exciting and i have to agree with her. however, you can find the whole speech here. 

 

"When asked if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: If you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren’t pessimistic, you don’t understand the data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren’t optimistic, you haven’t got a pulse. What I see everywhere in the world are ordinary people willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in order to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world."

 

"Ralph Waldo Emerson once asked what we would do if the stars only came out once every

thousand years. No one would sleep that night, of course. The world would create new religions overnight. We would be ecstatic, delirious, made rapturous by the glory of God. Instead, the stars come out every night and we watch television.

 

This extraordinary time when we are globally aware of each other and the multiple dangers that threaten civilization has never happened, not in a thousand years, not in ten thousand years. Each of us is as complex and beautiful as all the stars in the universe. We have done great things and we have gone way off course in terms of honoring creation. You are graduating to the most amazing, stupefying challenge ever bequested to any generation. The generations before you failed. They didn’t stay up all night. They got distracted and lost sight of the fact that life is a miracle every

moment of your existence. Nature beckons you to be on her side. You couldn’t ask for a better boss.

The most unrealistic person in the world is the cynic, not the dreamer. Hope only makes sense when it doesn’t make sense to be hopeful. This is your century. Take it and run as if your life depends on it."

holy moly.

and then of course there is this bit:

...can you feel your body? Stop for a moment. Feel your body. One septillion activities going on simultaneously, and your body does this so well you are free to ignore it, and wonder instead when this  speech will end. You can feel it. It is called life. This is who you are.

yup. i think are bodies are pretty damn "perfect" indeed. as are paul's words.