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last summer in a grand celebration of

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literature Harvard Square and Harvard

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Yard historically known as the place for

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hallowed halls filled with books was

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transformed into Hogwarts Square this

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summer festival celebrated the midnight

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release of Harry Potter and the Deathly

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Hallows the seventh and final

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installment in the wildly popular series

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hoards of people children and adults

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alike dressed in elaborate wizard

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costumes stood in line for hours at the

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coop to purchase copies of the book

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dozens of restaurants and stores stayed

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open late and posted Harry Potter themed

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specials and a three hour concert capped

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off the evening and impact true

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centenary theater today tercentenary

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theatre is once again packed with

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children and adults and we are pleased

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to welcome one of the most successful

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authors of our time her books have set

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sales records and have won many awards

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probably because the Harry Potter

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stories provide a familiar backdrop for

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readers who can empathize with the young

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protagonists adrift in a sometimes cruel

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and challenging world in addition to her

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vast contributions to literature

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she is also noted for the social moral

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and political inspiration she has given

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her fans

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a notable philanthropist she has

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established the Volant charitable trust

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which donates millions of dollars to aid

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women and children and to combat poverty

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and social inequality the

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the fund also gives to organizations

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that aid children one parent families

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and multiple multiple sclerosis research

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she herself has noted that a person has

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a moral responsibility when you've been

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given far more than you need to do wise

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things with it and to give intelligently

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and now I give you MS JK Rowling

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president first members of the Harvard

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corporation and the Board of Overseers

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members of the faculty proud parents and

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above all graduates the first thing I

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would like to say is thank you

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not only has half had given me an

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extraordinary honor but the weeks of

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fear and nausea I have endured at the

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thought of giving this commencement

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address have made me lose weight

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a win-win situation now all I have to do

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is take deep breaths squint at the red

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banners and convince myself than up that

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I am at the world's largest Gryffindor

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reunion

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delivering a commencement address is a

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great responsibility or so I thought

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until I cast my mind back to my own

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graduation the commencement speaker that

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day was the distinguished British

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philosopher Baroness Mary Warnock

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reflecting on her speech has helped me

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enormous Lee in writing this one because

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it turns out that I can't remember a

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single word she said this liberating

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discovery enables me to proceed without

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any fear that I might inadvertently

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influence you to abandon promising

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careers in business the law or politics

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for the giddy delights of becoming a gay

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wizard

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you see if all you remember in years to

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come is the gay wizard joke I've come

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out ahead of Baroness marijuana

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achievable goals the first step to

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self-improvement actually I have wrapped

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my mind and heart for what I ought to

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say to you today I have asked myself

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what I wish I had known at my own

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graduation and what important lessons I

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have learnt in the 21 years that have

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expired between that day and this I have

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come up with two answers on this

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wonderful day when we are gathered

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together to celebrate your academic

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success I have decided to talk to you

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about the benefits of failure and as you

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stand on the threshold of what is

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sometimes called real life I want to

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extol the crucial importance of

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imagination these may seem quixotic or

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paradoxical choices but bear with me

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looking back at the 21 year old that I

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was at graduation is a slightly

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uncomfortable experience for the 42 year

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old that she has become half my lifetime

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ago I was striking an uneasy balance

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between the ambition I had for myself

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and what those closest are to me

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expected of me I was convinced that the

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only thing I wanted to do ever was write

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novels however my parents both of whom

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came from impoverished backgrounds and

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neither of whom had been to college took

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the view that my overactive imagination

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was an amusing personal quirk that would

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never pay a mortgage or secure a pension

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I know the irony strikes with the force

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of a cartoon anvil now but so they hoped

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that I would take a vocational degree I

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wanted to study English literature a

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compromise was reached that in

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retrospect satisfied nobody and I went

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up to study Modern Languages hardly had

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my parents car round at the corner at

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the end of the road then

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ditched German and scuttled off down the

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classics corridor

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I cannot remember telling my parents

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that I was studying classics they might

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well have found out for the first time

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on graduation day of all the subjects on

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this planet I think they would have been

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hard put to name one less useful than

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Greek mythology when it came to securing

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the keys to an executive bathroom now I

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would like to make it clear in

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parentheses that I do not blame my

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parents but their point of view there is

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an expiry date on blaming your parents

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for steering you in the wrong direction

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the moment you are old enough to take

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the wheel responsibility lies with you

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what is more I cannot criticize my

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parents for hoping that I would never

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experience poverty they had been poor

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themselves and I have since been poor

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and I quite agree with them that it is

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not an ennobling experience poverty

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entails fear and stress and sometimes

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depression it means a thousand petty

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humiliations and hardships climbing out

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of poverty by your own efforts that is

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something on which to pride yourself but

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poverty itself is romanticized only by

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fools what I feared most for myself at

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your age was not poverty but failure at

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your age in spite of a distinct lack of

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motivation at University where I had

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spent far too long in the coffee bar

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writing stories and far too little time

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at lectures I had a knack for passing

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examinations and that for years had been

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the measure of success in my life and

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that of my peers now I am not done

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enough to suppose that because you are

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young gifted and well-educated you have

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never known heartbreak hardship or

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heartache talent and intelligence never

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yet inoculated anyone against the

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Caprice of the fates and I do not for a

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moment suppose that everyone here has

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enjoyed an existence of unruffled

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privilege and contentment however the

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fact that you are graduating from

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Harvard suggests that you are not very

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well acquainted with failure

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you might be driven by a fear of failure

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quite as much as a desire for success

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indeed your conception of failure might

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not be too far removed from the average

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person's idea of success so high

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have you already flown ultimately we all

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have to decide for ourselves what

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constitutes failure but the world is

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quite eager to give you a set of

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criteria if you let it so I think it

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fair to say that by any conventional

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measure a mere seven years after my

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graduation day I had failed on an epic

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scale an exceptionally short lived

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marriage had imploded and I was jobless

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a lone parent and as poor as it is

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possible to be in modern Britain without

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being homeless the fears that my parents

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had had for me and that I had had for

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myself had both come to pass and by

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every usual standard I was the biggest

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failure I knew now I'm not going to

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stand here and tell you that failure is

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fun that period of my life was a dark

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one and I had no idea that there was

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going to be what the press has since

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represented as a kind of fairytale

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resolution I had no idea then how far

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the tunnel extended and for a long time

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any light at the end of it was a hope

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rather than a reality so why do I talk

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about the benefits of failure simply

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because failure meant a stripping away

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of the inessential I stopped pretending

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to myself that I was anything other than

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what I was and began to direct all my

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energy into finishing the only work that

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mattered to me had I really succeeded at

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anything else I might never have found

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the determination to succeed in the one

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arena where I believed I truly belonged

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I was set free because my greatest fear

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had been realized and I was still alive

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and I still had a daughter whom I adored

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and I had an old typewriter and a big

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idea

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and so rock-bottom became the solid

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foundation on which I rebuilt my life

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you might never fail on the scale I did

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but some failure in life is inevitable

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it is impossible to live without failing

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at something unless you live so

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cautiously that you might as well not

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have lived at all in which case you fail

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by default failure gave me an inner

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security that I had never attained by

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passing examinations failure taught me

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things about myself that I could have

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learned no other way I discovered that I

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had a strong will and more discipline

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than I had suspected I also found out

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that I had friends whose value was truly

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above the price of rubies the knowledge

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that you have emerged wiser and stronger

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from setbacks means that you are ever

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after secure in your ability to survive

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you will never truly know yourself or

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the strength of your relationships until

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both have been tested by adversity such

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knowledge is a true gift for all that it

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is painfully one and it has been worth

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more than any qualification I ever

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earned so given a time Turner I would

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tell my 21 year old self that personal

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happiness lies in knowing that life is

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not a checklist of acquisition or

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achievement your qualifications

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your CV are not your life though you

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will meet many people of my age and

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older who confuse the two life is

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difficult and complicated and beyond

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anyone's total control and the humility

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to know that will enable you to survive

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its vicissitudes now you might think

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that I chose my second theme the

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importance of imagination because of the

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part it played in rebuilding my life but

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that is not wholly so though I

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personally will defend the value of

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bedtime stories to my last gasp I have

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learned to value imagination in a much

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broader sense imagination is not only

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the uniquely human

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capacity to envision that which is not

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and therefore the fount of all invention

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and innovation in its arguably most

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transformative and revelatory capacity

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it is the power that enables us to

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empathize with humans whose experiences

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we have never shared one of the greatest

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formative experiences of my life

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preceded Harry Potter though it informed

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much of what I subsequently wrote in

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those books this revelation came in the

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form of one of my earliest day jobs

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though I was sloping off to write

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stories during my lunch hours I paid the

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rent in my early twenties by working at

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the African research department of

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Amnesty International's headquarters in

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London there in my little office

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I read hastily scribbled letters

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smuggled out of totalitarian regimes by

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men and women who were risking

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imprisonment to inform the outside world

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of what was happening to them I saw

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photographs of those who had disappeared

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without trace sent to amnesty by their

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desperate families and friends I read

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the testimony of torture victims and saw

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pictures of their injuries

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I opened handwritten eyewitness accounts

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of summary trials and executions of

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kidnappings and rapes many of my

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co-workers were ex political prisoners

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people who had been displaced from their

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homes or fled into exile because they

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had the temerity to speak against their

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governments visitors to our offices

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included those who who had come to give

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information or to try and find out what

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had happened to those who had they had

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left behind I shall never forget the

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African torture victim a young man no

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older than I was at the time who had

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become mentally ill after all he had

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endured in his homeland he trembled

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uncontrollably as he spoke into a video

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camera about the brutality inflicted

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upon him he was a foot taller than I was

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and seemed as fragile as a child I was

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given the job of hints courting him back

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to the underground station after

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and this man whose life had been

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shattered by cruelty took my hand with

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exquisite courtesy and wished me future

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happiness and as long as I live I shall

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remember walking along an empty corridor

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and suddenly hearing from behind a

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closed door a scream of pain and horror

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such as I have never heard since the

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door opened and the researcher poked out

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her out her head and told me to run and

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make a hot drink for the young man

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sitting with her she had just had to

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give him the news that in retaliation

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for his outspokenness against his

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country's regime his mother had been

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seized and executed every day of my

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working week in my early twenties I was

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reminded how incredibly fortunate I was

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to live in a country with a

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democratically elected government where

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legal representation and a public trial

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were the rights of everyone everyday I

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saw more evidence about the evils

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humankind will inflict on their fellow

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humans to gain or maintain power I began

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to have nightmares literal nightmares

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about some of the things I saw heard and

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read and yet I also learned more about

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human goodness at Amnesty International

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than I had ever known before

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amnesty mobilizes thousands of people

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who have never been tortured or

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imprisoned for their beliefs to act on

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behalf of those who have the power of

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human empathy leading to collective

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action saves lives and frees prisoners

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ordinary people whose personal

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well-being and security are assured join

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together in huge numbers to save people

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they do not know and will never meet my

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small participation in that process was

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one of the most humbling and inspiring

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experiences of my life

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unlike any other creature on this planet

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human beings can learn and understand

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without having experienced they can

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think themselves into other people's

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places of course this is a power like my

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brand of fictional magic that is morally

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neutral one might use such an ability to

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manipulate or control just as much as to

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understand or sympathise and many prefer

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not to exercise their imaginations at

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all they choose to remain comfortably

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within the bounds of their own

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experience never troubling to wonder how

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it would feel to have been born other

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than they are they can refuse to hear

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screams or peer inside cages they can

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close their minds and hearts to any

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suffering that does not touch them

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personally they can refuse to know I

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might be tempted to Envy people who can

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live that way except that I do not think

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they have any fewer nightmares than I do

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choosing to live in narrow spaces leads

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to a form of mental Agra phobia and that

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brings its own terrors I think the

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willfully unimaginative see more

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monsters they are often more afraid

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what is more those who choose not to

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empathize enable real monsters for

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without ever committing an act of

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outright evil ourselves we collude with

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it through our own apathy one of the

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many things I learned at the end of that

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classics corridor down which I ventured

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at the age of 18 in search of something

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I could not then define was this written

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by the Greek author Plutarch what we

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achieve inwardly will change outer

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reality that is an astonishing statement

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and yet proven a thousand times every

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day of our lives

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it expresses in part our inescapable

401
00:20:54,070 --> 00:20:58,120
connection with the outside world the

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fact that we touch other people's lives

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00:20:58,120 --> 00:21:06,520
simply by existing but how much more are

404
00:21:02,200 --> 00:21:09,490
you Harvard graduates of 2008 lightly to

405
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touch other people's lives your

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intelligence

407
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your capacity for hard work the

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education you have earned and received

409
00:21:15,260 --> 00:21:22,290
give you unique unique status and unique

410
00:21:19,170 --> 00:21:26,010
responsibilities even your nationality

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sets you apart the great majority of you

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belong to the world's only remaining

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superpower the way you vote the way you

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live the way you protest the pressure

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00:21:34,650 --> 00:21:39,780
you bring to bear on your government has

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an impact way beyond your borders that

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is your privilege and your burden if you

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choose to use your status and influence

419
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to raise your voice on behalf of those

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00:21:48,060 --> 00:21:53,429
who have no voice if you choose to

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identify not only with the powerful but

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with the powerless if you retain the

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ability to imagine yourself into the

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lives of those who do not have your

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advantages then it will not only be your

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00:22:02,280 --> 00:22:07,200
proud families who celebrate your

427
00:22:04,200 --> 00:22:09,540
existence but thousands and millions of

428
00:22:07,200 --> 00:22:13,170
people whose reality you have helped

429
00:22:09,540 --> 00:22:15,720
change we do not need magic to transform

430
00:22:13,170 --> 00:22:18,420
our world we carry all the power we need

431
00:22:15,720 --> 00:22:22,620
inside ourselves already we have the

432
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power to imagine better I am nearly

433
00:22:22,620 --> 00:22:28,020
finished I have one last hope for you

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00:22:25,590 --> 00:22:31,230
which is something that I already had at

435
00:22:28,020 --> 00:22:33,330
twenty one the friends with whom i sat

436
00:22:31,230 --> 00:22:35,580
on graduation day have been my friends

437
00:22:33,330 --> 00:22:38,010
for life they are my children's

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00:22:35,580 --> 00:22:40,399
godparents the people to whom I've been

439
00:22:38,010 --> 00:22:42,690
able to turn in times of real trouble

440
00:22:40,400 --> 00:22:44,550
people who have been kind enough not to

441
00:22:42,690 --> 00:22:46,940
sue me when I took their names for Death

442
00:22:44,550 --> 00:22:46,940
Eaters

443
00:22:53,520 --> 00:22:59,200
at our graduation we were bound by

444
00:22:56,830 --> 00:23:00,970
enormous affection by our shared

445
00:22:59,200 --> 00:23:01,510
experience of a time that could never

446
00:23:00,970 --> 00:23:04,570
come again

447
00:23:01,510 --> 00:23:07,000
and of course by the knowledge that we

448
00:23:04,570 --> 00:23:10,659
held certain photographic evidence that

449
00:23:07,000 --> 00:23:13,740
would be exceptionally valuable if any

450
00:23:10,660 --> 00:23:13,740
of us ran for prime minister

451
00:23:14,730 --> 00:23:22,960
so today I wish you nothing better and

452
00:23:18,759 --> 00:23:25,240
similar friendships and tomorrow I hope

453
00:23:22,960 --> 00:23:26,169
that even if you remember not a single

454
00:23:25,240 --> 00:23:29,320
word of mine

455
00:23:26,169 --> 00:23:32,110
you remember those of Seneca another of

456
00:23:29,320 --> 00:23:34,450
those old Romans I met when I fled down

457
00:23:32,110 --> 00:23:37,779
the classics corridor in retreat from

458
00:23:34,450 --> 00:23:43,389
from career ladders in search of ancient

459
00:23:37,779 --> 00:23:46,659
wisdom as is a tale so is life not how

460
00:23:43,389 --> 00:23:49,748
long it is but how good it is is what

461
00:23:46,659 --> 00:23:53,249
matters I wish you all very good lives

462
00:23:49,749 --> 00:23:53,249
thank you very much

463
00:24:06,909 --> 00:24:08,970
you