Postcard #6: A blessing for a life worth living
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Go, in the name of imagination, of wonder and curiosity, of the spirit of inquiry, of critical engagement, of the ethic of the producer and of enterprise, and see what you can make of them.
~ Donald Horne, Graduation Ceremony Address at University of Sydney, 2005
Donald Horne was an Australian journalist, social critic, academic and author. I read this quote in his book Dying: A Memoir, which includes his ‘journal of a terminal illness’—written in the last year of his life with pulmonary fibrosis. He died in September 2005, aged 83.
Horne approached life as a constant exploration. He talked of:
…a producer’s ethic—another enlightening phrase, as distinguishing between a creative, productive life, both cooperative and self-reliant, and a consumer’s ethic, now one of the definers of our ‘consumer society’.
He believed a producer’s ethic must be part of a life worth living.
The above blessing, given to the graduating class, gave me a sense of lightness and freedom and possibility.
What does it give you?
