On Monday, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker gave the commencement address at Northwestern University (of which he himself is a graduate of the NU law school). It’s a wonderful speech, that uses as its theme the life lessons you could get from the TV sitcom, The Office. It turns out that he and his speechwriter were big fans of the show. (Further, there was a fun twist to it all. More on that later.) The speech is very entertaining and often quite funny, but thoughtful, as well. One of his references to The Office came when discussing having to deal with the pandemic in 2020, which he said gave him “a greater appreciation for just how much you don’t know.” He added that “I knew that my job was to minimize the damage this deadly disease was doing, but no one could guide me toward the absolute best way to do that. As Michael Scott said, ‘I knew exactly what to do. But in a much more real sense, I had no idea what to do.’” I particularly liked when Gov. Pritzker discussed dealing with idiots, which he told the graduating students everyone will have to do as they go through life. And also got a political dig in, as well -- “I wish there was a foolproof way to spot idiots,” he said, “but counterintuitively, some idiots are very smart. They can dazzle you with words and misdirection. They can get promoted above you at work. They can even get elected president. “If you want to be successful in this world, you have to develop your own idiot detection system,” Pritzker continued. He said that he considers “empathy and compassion” as part of his “idiot detection system” — as well as judging people on the basis whether they have or haven’t seen the original Star Wars movies. And being a parent with two college-aged children, he spoke a bit on the subject. “If you think your parents are crazy, it’s important that you understand you made us this way,” he said to laughs. “We are experts in worrying about you. And this affliction just gets worse with time and distance.” Also on being a parent, he said “Like most of the parents here, having children turned me from a fun, cool, spontaneous person who could stay up past midnight to a functional madman who answers the phone, ‘Yello’ and won’t let anyone in my house touch the thermostat,” But there’s something else notable about this The Office-themed speech, good as it was. And that's where the "twist" comes in. It’s that one of the graduating students there at the ceremony was the daughter of -- Steve Carell. And being her father, he was (unbeknown to Gov. Pritzker) there in the audience! And yes, afterwards, Carell went over to the governor and introduced himself. Here’s the 20-minute speech.
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AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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