Commencement Address, Wellesley High School, June 4, 1999

A few years ago, Spike Lee made a movie called “Do The Right Thing.” I’ve never actually seen the film but the title has always stuck in my mind. I’d like to take a few moments to talk about how to do the right thing.

Now this is not going to be a sermon on behavior. You are young adults and for the most part your behavior patterns are already set. The only comment I would make would be to the two young men who decided to blow off my class and hold a party on St. Patrick’s day. Guys, the least you could have done was give me a guest list. It would have made filling out the cut slips easier! Instead of behavior, I would like to focus on some short term tactical and long term strategic ideas on how to do the right thing.

A few years ago my wife and I visited our son who was a junior at Boston University. When we entered his room I saw a hand written sign taped over his desk. It said “You don’t have to like it, you just have to do it.” When I asked him about this sign he said it referred to his German class. Although he had always liked German, this was the last required semester. The professor was boring. The readings were uninteresting. However he was smart enough to recognize that he didn’t have to like the course. He just had to do it.

Now you will all be faced with short term tasks both in college and later on as working adults. Many of them will not be interesting. Some of you probably felt this way entering my mathematics classes this year. I hope I was able to change that view. In any event, most of you managed to do the right thing. Your parents can give you a litany of tasks that they don’t like but that they do because it is the right thing. Ask them sometime about tuition bills, taxes, or the time they paid one of your traffic tickets. Thirty-one years ago, as I was about to graduate from college, I was faced with a short term task that I knew I wasn’t going to like. I could have run off to Canada or Sweden. Instead I decided to do the right thing for me. I enlisted in the military. I pray that none of you are ever faced with that choice.

My son’s quotation is probably not very good as a long term strategy. If you are going to decide to be with someone or do something for the rest of your life then in order to do the right thing, love must be a principal component.

With regard to these two of life’s tasks, I have been very lucky. I met a woman 33 years ago who has been willing to put up with my idiosyncrasies. We have been happily married for almost 29 years. As far as your vocation in life goes, I’d like to incorporate a line from Mrs. Goddard. To do the right thing, you must be passionate. I’m lucky that I have an excellent role model to look up to. My father, who turns 81 in a few days, still works five hours a day, six days a week at the same job he’s had for more than 50 years. How else do you explain the fact that I’ve gone my entire adult life, over 31 years, without missing a day of work? It is a deep love and passion for both teaching and mathematics.

So let me close with a little mathematics. You didn’t think I would talk to you today without mentioning my favorite subject. Those of you who took my discrete class know that prime numbers are the fundamental building blocks of arithmetic. They are numbers which, in a mathematical sense, cannot be broken apart. Well, 1999 is a prime number. It cannot be broken. Maybe this is a sign. I hope that your desire to learn, willingness to help others, passion about life and what it has to offer are also never broken. If you can get to my age, look back on your life and say that these qualities are still intact, then you will have done the right thing.

Thank you.