, pleasant and not so pleasant, but, paraphrasing a woodrow wilson school adage from the time i was here, “ wherever you go, there you are. ” if you are not happy with yourself, even the loftiest achievements won ’ t bring you much satisfaction. 3. the concept of success leads me to consider so - called meritocracies and their implications. we have been taught that meritocratic institutions and societies are fair. putting aside the reality that no system, including our own, is really entirely meritocratic, meritocracies may be fairer and more efficient than some alternatives. but fair in an absolute sense? think about it. a meritocracy is a system in which the people who are the luckiest in their health and genetic endowment ; luckiest in terms of family support, encouragement, and, probably, income ; luckiest in their educational and career opportunities ; and luckiest in so many other ways difficult to enumerate – these are the folks who reap the largest rewards. the only way for even a putative meritocracy to hope to pass ethical muster, to be considered fair, is if those who are the luckiest in all of those respects also have the greatest responsibility to work hard, to contribute to the betterment of the world, and to share their luck with others. as the gospel of luke says ( and i am sure my rabbi will forgive me for quoting the new testament in a good cause ) : “ from everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required ; and from the one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded ” ( luke 12 : 48, new revised standard version bible ). kind of grading on the curve, you might say. 4. who is worthy of admiration? the admonition from luke – which is shared by most ethical and philosophical traditions, by the way – helps with this question as well. those most worthy of admiration are those who have made the best use of their advantages or, alternatively, coped most courageously with their adversities. i think most of us would agree that people who have, say, little formal schooling but labor honestly and diligently to help feed, clothe, and educate their families are deserving of greater respect – and help, if necessary – than many people who are superficially more successful. they ’ re more fun to have a beer with, too. that ’ s all

whatever “ agley ” means. a more contemporary philosopher, forrest gump, said something similar about life and boxes of chocolates and not knowing what you are going to get. they were both right. life is amazingly unpredictable ; any 22 - year - old who thinks he or she knows where they will be in 10 years, much less in 30, is simply lacking imagination. look what happened to me : a dozen years ago i was minding my own business teaching economics 101 in alexander hall and trying to think of good excuses for avoiding faculty meetings. then i got a phone call... in case you are skeptical of forrest gump ’ s insight, here ’ s a concrete suggestion for each of the graduating seniors. take a few minutes the first chance you get and talk to an alum participating in his or her 25th, or 30th, or 40th reunion – you know, somebody who was near the front of the p - rade. ask them, back when they were graduating 25, 30, or 40 years ago, where they expected to be today. if you can get them to open up, they will tell you that today they are happy and satisfied in various measures, or not, and their personal stories will be filled with highs and lows and in - betweens. but, i am willing to bet, those life stories will in almost all cases be quite different, in large and small ways, from what they expected when they started out. this is a good thing, not a bad thing ; who note to journalists : this is a joke. my leave from princeton expired in 2005. bis central bankers ’ speeches wants to know the end of a story that ’ s only in its early chapters? don ’ t be afraid to let the drama play out. 2. does the fact that our lives are so influenced by chance and seemingly small decisions and actions mean that there is no point to planning, to striving? not at all. whatever life may have in store for you, each of you has a grand, lifelong project, and that is the development of yourself as a human being. your family and friends and your time at princeton have given you a good start. what will you do with it? will you keep learning and thinking hard and critically about the most important questions? will you become an emotionally stronger person, more generous, more loving, more ethical? will you involve yourself actively and constructively in the world? many things will happen in your lives