Everybody's Free (to feel good)

Blog-surfing, which is currently my unconfessed hobby, led me yesterday to Ranjana's Blog, and from there to "The Sunscreen Song". It is what sounds like a commencement speech, set to music. In fact it is not a real commencement speech (though it should be!), but rather a column that appeared in the Chicago Tribune on June 1, 1997 entitled "Advice, Like Youth, probably wasted on the youth" by staff writer Mary Schmich.  

Sometime around Thursday, July 31, 1997, Mary's article found it's way onto the internet in the form of an email hoax, claiming to be the 1997 commencement address of Kurt Vonnegut to MIT grads. The real address that year was actually delivered by U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan on June 5. 

A year later, the email re-circulated claiming to be Kurt's commencement address to the Class of 1998! The email caught the attention of Australian film director Baz Luhrmann, who eventually tracked the source of the speech to Schmich, and bought the rights to the words to turn it into a song. He took Quindon Tarver's "Everybody's Free (to Feel Good)" song, remixed it, and hired Sydney actor Lee Perry to read Schmich's "speech". 

The end result became the seven-minute long "Sunscreen Song". The song received heavy airplay from American radio stations nationwide after KNRK in Portland aired an edited (about 4 1/2 minute) version in the spring of 1999 -- about the time of graduation that year. According to Luhrmann's label, Capitol Records, it became the most requested song on radio morning shows in Atlanta and Philadelphia 

So, here's the song, Everybody's Free to Wear Sunscreen, by Mary Schmich:  

 

Ladies and Gentlemen of the class of '99
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.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth.
oh nevermind; you will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they have faded
But trust me, in 20 years you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked...

You are not as fat as you imagine
Don't worry about the future; or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday 

Do one thing everyday that scares you

Sing 

Don't be reckless with other people's hearts; don't put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Floss 

Don't waste your time on jealousy; sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind. The race is long, and in the end, it's only with yourself 

Remember the compliments you receive, forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old love letters, throw away your old bank statements

Stretch

Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40 year olds I know still don't.

Get plenty of calcium; Be kind to your knees, you'll miss them when they're gone

Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll have children, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll divorce at 40, maybe you'll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding
anniversary. What ever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself either your choices are half chance, so are everybody else's

Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can. Don't be afraid of it, or what other people think of it. It's the greatest instrument you'll ever own

Dance... even if you have nowhere to do it but in your own living room

Read the directions, even if you don't follow them

Do NOT read beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly

Get to know your parents, you never know when they'll be gone for good 

Be nice to your siblings they are the best link to your past, and the people most likely to stick with you in the future

Understand that friends come and go, but for the precious few you should hold on

Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle because the older you get the more you need the people you knew when you were young 

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

Travel

Accept certain inalienable truths. Prices will rise. Politicians will philander. You too will get old, and when you do you'll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble, and children respected their elders

Respect your elders

Don't expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund; maybe you have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either one might run out

Don't mess too much with your hair or by the time you're 40, it will look 85

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. 

But trust me on the sunscreen