Stephen Colbert addresses the graduates of MUSC, Class of 2009
By
As we mentioned here last month, Stephen Colbert was chosen to give the commencement address today at the Medical University of South Carolina. We will, as ever, be on the lookout for potential footage from this event, but here’s a first look at some of what he said.
From the Charleston Regional Business Journal:
Colbert returns to give MUSC commencement address
By Chelsea Hadaway
chadaway@scbiznews.com
Published May 15, 2009
Charleston’s own Stephen Colbert returned to familiar stomping grounds as he delivered the Medical University of South Carolina’s 180th commencement address this morning.
. . .
In between other quips about cadavers named Ricky and medical school pick-up lines, were moments of poignancy as Colbert reflected on his father, who died in a plane crash when Colbert was 10 years old.
“When a parent dies to a young child, the godlike image of that parent is trapped in amber,” he said. And then the child looses [sic] the ability to see the parent as a human, he said. But he thanked Dr. Layton McCurdy, who was a friend of his father’s and another faculty member at MUSC, for telling him stories of his father as a human and a doctor.
Colbert spoke of his father’s favorite quote from Jaques Maritain: “The only sadness is not to be a saint.” This played into his advice he wanted to give to the graduates, which was “go make mistakes.”
“But it’s irresponsible for me to tell graduates of a medical college to go out and make as many mistakes as you can,” he said. So he instead offered other advice: “Lower your patients’ expectations as to your competence as soon as possible.”
. . .
It must have been a great honor for Stephen to be asked to speak at a school with such strong family ties. I have no doubt he delivered a wonderful speech (I’m enjoying the portions quoted so far!), and I hope we get the opportunity to see bits of it on YouTube or the like soon.
Congratulations, 2009 MUSC graduates!
Related posts
7 Comments
May 15th, 2009 at 2:40 pm
He may play an “intolerant blowhard” on TV but he was such a wonderful, thoughtful, tolerant and wise speaker to those students. I’m sure it was a moving experience for him. Looking forward to an eventual video somewhere.
Reply
May 15th, 2009 at 3:55 pm
I forgot when this was going to be! Thanks for posting about it. It sounds like those graduates had an absolutely wonderful commencement speech. I got a little misty when they talked about Stephen remembering going there with his father. It must be such an honor for Stephen to give this speech in front of the building that was named for his father. Wow. Anyways, this was a great article!
Reply
May 15th, 2009 at 9:05 pm
The only sadness is not to be a saint.
Can someone tell my how hat fit with what Stephen was saying? (I’m not a native american speaker)
This hurt my heart a little bit. When he talked about his father. It was a great speech, and you can always feel, how Stephen cares about what he says, in these speeches. It must be an honor to give a speech at a place named after his father. Hi’s father seemed to a VERY good man.
Reply
May 15th, 2009 at 9:24 pm
I was a little confused by that as well.
I think Stephen meant that not even saints were perfect. They made mistakes too. For example, St. Paul persecuted Christians for many years before turning to God.
However, I don’t think Stephen is encouraging the students to make these sort of mistakes:)
He’s basically saying that you’re bound to make mistakes even when you’re trying to do the right thing…or trying to be a saint.
I loved hearing about his father’s favorite quote. It’s small things like this that make you understand what makes Stephen such an amazing man.
Reply
May 16th, 2009 at 11:13 am
I think of saints as, while still being human, closer to perfect than most humans. When you say, “She was a saint” think about what you mean by that and then you can feel sad that you don’t always live up to that. How did it relate to the topic on hand? Well, he’s saying that his father was saying that he could relate to that sadness and the students should accept themselves, though sadly, as not always as “perfect” as a saint.
Just what it meant to me.
Reply
May 16th, 2009 at 12:41 pm
Oh okay, thank you:) I loved hearing it aswell.
Reply
May 16th, 2009 at 1:49 pm
It was an amazing speech! I’m in the class below the one that graduated from MUSC this year, but I made sure to take time off to see him speak. A few of my favorites from his ways to lower expectations of your patients: 1) have patients walk into the exam room where you are waiting in a gown and 2) put the stethoscope on their forehead and ask them to clench.
Reply