President’s Opening Convocation Address 2017

The Puzzle as Perseverance

I’ve been thinking about puzzles lately. It all started a few weeks ago, when I found myself cooped up in an Airbnb mountain cabin with all of our kids, their spouses, and six grandchildren under the age of five. Veronica and I were in Breckenridge, Colorado, for a long-planned weekend with nearly all of our immediate family. And for almost the entire day, it rained. And it was cold.

I began rifling through the drawers and closets of the cabin, looking for something all of us could do together. And I found a big Rubbermaid container filled with puzzles. Do you remember putting together puzzles as part of your family traditions? Maybe you did them while you waited for the Thanksgiving turkey to finish cooking. Or that week between Christmas and New Year’s when you didn’t have much planned, and it was too cold to play outside. Maybe it wasn’t a puzzle. Maybe it was a complicated Lego set, or a model airplane — some “mental stimulator” that brought the whole family together.

When I think of puzzles, I think of my grandmother’s house and her giant dining room table. My Aunt Ethel was her caregiver, and I spent many after-school hours and summers at my grandmother’s. Aunt Ethel took care of me, but she was also my playmate. That’s because she had a significant cognitive disability — she functioned at roughly the level of a 12-year-old. In those days, she would have been described as “mentally retarded.” Yet, Aunt Ethel was quite skilled at cooking and cleaning, and, especially, at playing cards and assembling puzzles.

I have many wonderful memories of spending hours at that dining room table with Aunt Ethel working on puzzles, with the aroma of spaghetti sauce or vegetable soup wafting through the house. My job was to find the corner pieces and then all of the edges building out from those corners. My Aunt would start in the middle and work her way to the outside. And every afternoon when I came home from school, or every summer morning when my mother dropped me off on her way to work, I would sit at the table and work on that puzzle. Sometimes it would take days, sometimes weeks. But the puzzle would remain on that table, day after day, until we finished.

When I was younger, we would do easy puzzles — 50 pieces, maybe 75. But as I got older, the puzzles got harder. When I was entering high school, the puzzles were the most challenging; you know, the 1,000-piece puzzles of Monet’s garden or “the ocean at night.”

These puzzles usually went on for days. I’d start the puzzle with great enthusiasm. Yet, inevitably, with each passing day, my energy waned. I had finished the easiest parts, with a little less than half left to fill in. The most difficult pieces were left, sometimes taking what seemed like hours to find a connecting piece. It wasn’t nearly as much fun and took intense concentration and a lot of trial and error. And I was easily distracted by the kids playing down the street, or the sound of an approaching train, or even my grandmother’s soap operas, her “stories” as she called them, playing on the television.

Indefatigably, my Aunt Ethel kept working on that puzzle — her patient and focused example brought me back to the task, time and time again. She taught me how to keep going after the easy work was done. She taught me how to persevere. Because of my Aunt, the one others called retarded, I learned how to finish what I started. And when we finished that puzzle together, I learned what accomplishment felt like. I can still see my Aunt clapping her hands together and bouncing up and down in her chair, proclaiming, “We did it, Mark! We did it!”

Each of our life’s journey up until this point — to this time and this place — has offered challenges a lot like that 1,000-piece puzzle. Maybe it was that time you ran your first-ever cross-country meet, and there was that point in the race where you didn’t think you could finish. Or maybe you made first chair in the school’s band, but you weren’t quite sure you’d be able to lead your section to perfect each piece of music in time for the next concert.

On a deeper, more personal level, maybe you live with a disability, anxiety, or depression and there were days when you didn’t know how you would finish the school year, or even get through the day. Or maybe your family lived off one income, and you weren’t sure how you would ever afford to get to college. Or maybe, like me, you are the first in your family to go to college. Or you grew up in a neighborhood where kids didn’t normally leave their hometown, let alone go away to four-year universities.

No matter the specifics of your circumstances, we’ve all faced obstacles in our lives that have made us want to give up —  to stop trying. To walk away from the puzzle unfinished.

Valpo Prepares You to Persevere

You wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for perseverance — if it weren’t for someone, something, maybe even your own inner voice telling you to keep going. Keep working. Keep striving. Which makes you exactly the kind of student and potential leader we cultivate here at Valpo.

Each of you has a story of perseverance to tell, and because of that, we believe each of you is motivated to not only improve yourself, but also to make this world a better place. Valpo is distinguished from other universities in our shared desire to seek truth, serve generously, and cultivate hope. We do this by preparing women and men of great character to lead and serve for the sake of the world.

During your years here, there will be times when your perseverance will be tested. College is not going to be easy, and there will be obstacles. But through the people you meet, the friends you make, and the experiences you have, you will learn how to rise above those obstacles, to achieve your goals, to experience the world through new eyes, and to become part of a rich and diverse community of people who are individually and collectively on the journey to pursue Truth, serve generously, and cultivate hope, no matter how hard at times it may be.

Your journey starts today, in this Chapel, as you participate in a nearly 90-year-old tradition of Valpo students who have gathered together for Opening Convocations past; as you sign the more than seven-decade-old Honor Code, which embodies the University’s emphasis on academic honesty and integrity; as you pin yourself with the Shield of Character, a symbol of the University’s dedication to preparing women and men of character and wisdom who will lead and serve in church and society; and as you go forth from this place to persevere in the pursuit of your passion and purpose in this world.

Leadership Models of Perseverance

There are many examples of notable people in our recent and contemporary history who have embodied what it means to persevere in the pursuit of passion, purpose, and the greater good.

A young single mother in Edinburgh lived on welfare while working on her young adult fiction book. After several rejections from publishers, her novel later blossomed into the highest grossing children’s literary brand in history. J.K. Rowling.

A man whose mother was a custodian and father an assembly line worker was influenced by his parents’ strong work ethic. He later became one of the most talented and well-respected basketball players of his era, despite making waves when he announced contracting a life-threatening virus. He has since become one of the most influential African American businessmen. Magic Johnson.

A young man who lived with dyslexia and struggled in traditional academic settings started a company in his garage, and he will forever be known as one of the greatest innovators and inventors of our time. Steve Jobs.

These are the stories of inspiring leaders who persevered through a variety of obstacles, stigmas, and past failures. They sought to be their most excellent selves.

Now, not all of us in this Chapel will go on to become the next J.K. Rowling or Magic Johnson or Steve Jobs, but I believe each of you has the ability to excel and the potential to achieve noteworthy accomplishments. That’s because the people who are gathered around you — the faculty, staff, coaches, OAs, mentors, and returning students — are here because they are dedicated to helping you discover your gifts, navigate adversity, and pursue excellence. To persevere. We will challenge you to think more deeply. We’ll introduce you to learning environments that will stimulate your expanding and curious mind. And we’ll provide you with cross-cultural exposure, internship experiences, and hands-on learning that will shape the way you think about your personal calling and the world’s needs.

Persevering Through Times of Great Change

Why do we make these challenging commitments to you? Because we are dedicated to preparing you for a world that is currently undergoing enormous change, and not all of it good. And this change is coming from all directions — environmental, societal, religious, and of course technological change. Here are just a few predictions:

According to an article in Business Insider, due to advances in augmented reality, smartphones will become obsolete by 2025. Within the next decade, we will see the first self-driven vehicles on roads.[i] And a recent report by Pricewaterhouse Coopers predicts that 38 percent of American jobs will be replaced by robots and other artificial intelligence applications by the mid 2030s.[ii]

According to the Pew Research Center, by 2050, Caucasians will be a minority in the United States,[iii] and the number of Muslims in the world will nearly equal Christians.[iv]

Trends in population and economic growth also impact environmental and health changes. Access to natural resources such as oil, gas, food, and water will become scarcer, causing possible worldwide shortages by 2040.[v] And by 2050, our climate and topography could look much different as we emit increased levels of CO2, our ice caps shrink and ocean levels rise, causing changes in ecosystems and weather patterns both on land and sea.[vi] 

Students, faculty, staff, and alumni — within recent years, we have already seen the way we as humans have attempted to adapt to these changes, and how ultimately, we have fallen short.

Demographic, political, and religious changes have led to upheaval regarding race relations, immigration, and religious tolerance.  Incomprehensible, shameful events are unfolding before our eyes. Loathsome, vile, bigoted activities like the Klu Klux Clan, Neo-Nazis, and other white supremacist organizations have been energized by the equivocation and perhaps even tacit endorsement of the president of the United States.

Social media and other tech advances have led to our society becoming increasingly isolated, less informed, more fearful, and more willing to engage in shallow comments instead of deep discussions.[vii] Disease continues to plague our nation and our world, and natural disasters continue to affect millions along our coastlines and in our plains.

Adapting to Change

In his most recent book, “Thank You for Being Late: An Optimist’s Guide to Thriving in the Age of Acceleration,” Thomas Friedman says we are in such a rapid period of growth that we are and will be unable to adapt to the changes ahead. We as human beings will be ill-equipped to make adjustments in our political structures, organizational and business models, and in our psyches and habits — that is, according to Friedman, unless we stop isolating ourselves, we work and live together well, and we continue to educate ourselves for successful adaptation.

Friedman says, “if you want to solve a big problem, you need to go from taking credit, to sharing credit, to multiplying credit.” And when it comes to working together, to making and adapting to social change, he draws on history. He says, and I say with emphasis, “The principal factor promoting historically significant social change is contact with strangers possessing new and unfamiliar skills.”

I believe Friedman is right. History has shown us that successful social change involves people working together across differences, even when doing so seems unsavory, unthinkable, or unimaginable. There are countless leaders who have proven this theory true. Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Theresa, Martin Luther King Jr., Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Nelson Mandela, to name just a few.

Students, colleagues, and friends, if we are to persevere through and adapt successfully in this time of profound and disturbing change, we must do three things. We must learn to do old things in new ways and be open to opportunities for innovation. We must embrace the other. And we must never lose sight of the source of and the values that underpin our understanding of Truth.

The first thing we must do is learn to do old things in new ways and be open to opportunities for innovation. At Valpo, we seek to continually adapt our educational model so we can incorporate discoveries in teaching and learning that will increase your chances of success. As a Valpo student, you will not just learn about the way things were. Rather, you will learn the way things were in order to help shape the way things will be — to use collective human experience in order to more fully comprehend the implications of new ideas, new discoveries, and new paradigms. You will practice this in your Core, Christ College, humanities, and social sciences courses as you draw upon historical theories to discern evolving philosophical ideas and societal norms. In your STEM and arts classes as you test hypotheses, build upon earlier research and creativity, and explore the boundaries of the world as we know it. And you will practice this when you volunteer at a homeless shelter, assisted-living facility, or pre-school and consider the ways societies have previously treated each of these populations and how societies can do better in the future.

The second thing we must do is to embrace the other. As we have learned so significantly in recent years — and even in recent weeks in light of tragic events in Charlottesville, Virginia — we will not endure as a society if we do not learn how to successfully appreciate and navigate our differences. Our future as a nation demands that we engage in productive dialogue with people who are different from us — people who come from different cultures, who have different religious and political ideas, who talk differently, eat differently, or pray differently. It is imperative that we listen carefully to those who have different perspectives so we can each challenge ourselves to do better, think better, build better, and live better alongside one another.

Here at Valpo, we have committed ourselves to this important work — to bring together disparate people from many backgrounds to share in a common pursuit of truth; to collectively explore what it means to be human, made in the likeness and image of God. At Valpo, you will do this in the classroom, during meals shared in Founders, staying up late talking in the residence halls, studying abroad, attending each other’s worship services, volunteering, and many other experiences designed to open ourselves up to seeing the world through the eyes of another. Together we seek to make Valpo an exemplary model of what it could look like to live in a community where people love and respect and dialogue with one another across our differences, even when those differences may be irreconcilable.

The third thing we must do is to never lose sight of the source of and the values that underpin our understanding of Truth. As a Lutheran University, our values are informed by our recognition and acceptance of the Divine. Valpo’s culture of scholarship, freedom, and faith means that we seek to remain continually open to and explore and discern Truth in light of God’s revelations, especially in a rapidly changing world. At this nexus of faith and reason, where Athens meets Jerusalem, we seek God’s revelations in both the earthly and the heavenly. In body and in soul. In innovation and tradition. And we cultivate the virtues God has bestowed upon us as humans — virtues such as wisdom, integrity, humility, compassion, generosity, leadership, and service. In an ever-changing world, these virtues at the core of our Valpo identity remain constant, even though much of the world may seem to have lost sight of them.

Hebrews 12:1 is one of the Bible passages we recount often here at Valpo. “Therefore since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” As members of the Valpo community, you now become part of that great cloud of witnesses — those students who have come before you in pursuit of Truth, leaders who have sought to be their most excellent selves, servants who have embodied human virtue, women and men who have persevered through times of great upheaval and change.

Learning to do old things in innovative ways. Embracing the other. Never losing sight of the source of and the values that underpin our understanding of Truth.

This afternoon we welcome a talented and diverse group of students into our distinctive Valpo community. Today you become part of a network of more than 60,000 students and alumni all over the world, along with professors, coaches, staff, and friends sitting right here in this Chapel, who have said “yes” to these three things we must do and who carry the Valpo spirit with them wherever they go. It is my hope and prayer that you, too, will persevere and flourish; that you will carry the torch, modeling for the world what it looks like to rise above the tides of change and work in community with others made in the image of God, in the common pursuit of Truth, and for the sake of the world.

Thank you for your willingness to take on such a charge. May God bless each and every one of you as you embark on this noble endeavor. And welcome to Valpo.

[i] http://www.businessinsider.com/ian-pearson-predictions-about-the-world-in-2050-2016-7/
[ii] http://www.pwc.co.uk/economic-services/ukeo/pwcukeo-section-4-automation-march-2017-v2.pdf)
[iii] http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2008/02/11/us-population-projections-2005-2050/
[iv] http://www.pewforum.org/2015/04/02/religious-projections-2010-2050/
[v] https://www.dni.gov/files/documents/NICR%202013-05%20US%20Nat%20Resources%202020,%202030%202040.pdf
[vi] http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/will-you-be-underwater-theres-a-map-for-that/
[vii] Thomas Friedman, Thank You For Being Late: An Optimist’s Guide to Thriving in the Age of Acceleration