George Saunders is one of the best living American writers today, and arguably, already one of the greatest short story writers of the modern era. If you aren't familiar with his fiction, go ahead and read some of his works online—we highly recommend "Tenth Of December," in which a little bit of hope breaks through a stark, Raymond Carver-esque malaise, and it is wonderful.
In addition to his fiction, Saunders has gained more fans this past year thanks to a commencement speech he gave at Syracuse University in 2013. Part of that speech, in which he encourages people to try to be kinder, has now been animated by Brooklyn-based group Serious Lunch for Above Average. Check it out:
You can read the full version of the speech here (it's also being released as a book this month), and the excerpt from video below:
I’d say, as a goal in life, you could do worse than try to be kinder.
In seventh grade, this new kid joined our class. In the interest of confidentiality, her name will be “ELLEN.” ELLEN was small, shy. She wore these blue cat’s-eye glasses that, at the time, only old ladies wore. When nervous, which was pretty much always, she had a habit of taking a strand of hair into her mouth and chewing on it.
So she came to our school and our neighborhood, and was mostly ignored, occasionally teased (“Your hair taste good?” - that sort of thing). I could see this hurt her. I still remember the way she’d look after such an insult: eyes cast down, a little gut-kicked, as if, having just been reminded of her place in things, she was trying, as much as possible, to disappear. After awhile she’d drift away, hair-strand still in her mouth.
Sometimes I’d see her hanging around alone in her front yard, as if afraid to leave it.
And then - they moved. That was it. One day she was there, next day she wasn’t.End of story.
Now, why do I regret that? Why, forty-two years later, am I still thinking about it? Relative to most of the other kids, I was actually pretty nice to her. I never said an unkind word to her. In fact, I sometimes even (mildly) defended her. But still, it bothers me.
What I regret most in my life are failures of kindness.
Those moments when another human being was there, in front of me, suffering, and I responded…sensibly. Reservedly. Mildly.
Or, to look at it from the other end of the telescope: Who, in your life, do you remember most fondly, with the most undeniable feelings of warmth?
Those who were kindest to you, I bet.But kindness, it turns out, is hard — it starts out all rainbows and puppy dogs, and expands to include . . . well, everything.
Here's another video of Saunders speaking at Google last year as well:
The ability to take what could seem like trite sentiments and spin it into wisdom is the gift of the great writers and thinkers. If you feel moved at all by his words, NYC can always use more volunteers.
