Commencement Speech// Contentment Is Wealth: The Top Ten Ways to Ultimate Success & Happiness in Life [Terence Winch]

Twelve years ago, on 17 May 2014, in the Theater at Madison Square Garden, I gave the graduate commencement address and received an honorary doctorate from my alma mater, Iona College, which has since elevated itself to Iona University.  Some have suggested I post the text of the speech, and so here it is. (There are parts of the speech I would like to re-write, but since I can't go back in time and deliver an edited version, I feel historical accuracy requires me to leave it as is.)

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Thank you, Iona faculty & staff, friends & family.  It’s an honor to have this opportunity to speak to you, my fellow Gaels, this afternoon here at Madison Square Garden.  

Like all of us vulnerable humans who finally finish with formal schooling, at least for now, you are about pursue a post-student life of fear, doubt, ambition, and self-delusion.  To assist you as you confront the universe as newly credentialed, highly educated persons, I offer you my address today, which is called   

Contentment Is Wealth: The Top Ten Ways to Ultimate Success & Happiness in Life

10. Self-Forgiveness—Learn to forgive yourself, for you know not what you do much of the time, at least if you’re like me. It’s harder than one might think to engage in self-forgiveness.  Sometimes it’s actually easier to go with guilt, depression, anxiety, anger, self-loathing— these and other well-established choices are always available to our needy psyches. But shun them. Life is too short, something those of us who are getting up there know better than anyone. And while you’re at it, try even to forgive others. See also: self-acceptance.

9. Anger management—Do not press “send” when you’re pissed off without first having someone you trust read the crazy diatribe you’ve just written.  I have learned the wisdom of this directive through ugly & painful firsthand experience.

8.  Hygiene—Get your teeth cleaned professionally twice a year. You’ll save a lot of money and grief in the end.

7. Accomplishment—If there’s something meaningful you want to accomplish, don’t get overwhelmed. Achievement is most often the result of an accumulation of many minor incremental steps that are really no big deal.  Alcoholics Anonymous encourages recovering drinkers to take it one day at a time. The truth in that advice applies to many of life’s struggles. The great novelist & short-story writer Flannery O’Connor wrote in one of her letters, “If you do the same thing every day at the same time for the same length of time, you’ll save yourself from many a sink. Routine is a condition of survival.” Scholars talk of how African-Americans—over centuries of spirit-crushing slavery and its long aftermath—practiced the art of Making a Way Out of No Way, of transcending suffering as much as possible through resilience and creativity. And through that fierce commitment to make a way out of no way, came incredibly rich traditions in music, literature, and other areas of accomplishment, not the least of which were sheer survival and endurance.  Never give up.

6. Finances—Don’t lend money to poets or fiddle players. Although I must make clear that poets and fiddlers occupy a place of high status in my own worldview.  I am also very fond of button-accordion players, to whose ranks I belong.  I started playing music as a kid, but I never really had much by way of instruction, so I wound up a musical illiterate, which sometimes drives my son Michael, who is a very accomplished musician, a little crazy. I like to say that I’m self-taught, and that I had a really bad teacher. But here, let me say something about perfection: perfection is another thing to shy away from.  During my years at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian in DC, I helped produce many publications, and among the first of them was a book on Navajo blankets.

I learned that it was and is the practice of Navajo master weavers to always introduce something they call “the spirit line,” a little flaw woven into the pattern of the rug, so as not to compete with, and thus offend, the Creator, the Great Spirit. Imperfection, in any case, makes life more interesting. Oh, and let me retract what I said at the start of this number:  If you want to be favorably immortalized by poets or have musicians compose a tune in your honor, always lend them money, or, even better, save yourself the trouble & just give them the damn cash.

5. Have Mercy—I love the sound of the word mercy. A one-word poem. I want some mercy. For me. For everybody. Forgiveness implies a wrong erased, but mercy is more the simple  bestowing of benevolence. Visit people in the hospital or the nursing home even though you, along with the rest of us, hate hospitals and nursing homes. Significant intangible power is generated when mercy is released into the atmosphere.

4. Critical Thinking—Don’t respect your elders or people in authority unless they have actually earned that respect. Let me here recommend a piece of writing that I first read as an undergraduate at Iona & that has stayed with me ever since, and that is George Orwell’s essay, "Politics and the English Language," written in 1946.  George Orwell, who once memorably assailed what he called "all the smelly little orthodoxies which are now contending for our souls," was a prophetic writer, as his novels 1984 and Animal Farm clearly show.  Orwell will help you de-construct all the intellectual malware 

infecting our political discourse.  For me, critical thinking involves inventing your own definitions by thinking about what any concept really means to you. People today often say, for example, they are “spiritual” but not necessarily religious, and I felt I needed to define spirituality for myself, which I decided means having an inner life, interior life, the life of the mind, the examined life. It means to go deeper into yourself. Likewise I define “critical thinking” as intellectual wakefulness, mindful attentiveness to whatever you encounter. Not always easy to do. Let me also salute William Blake, the great visionary & eccentric 19th-century English poet, who said: "Without Contraries Is No progression,” and “The man who never alters his opinion is like standing water, and breeds reptiles of the mind." Those are among a number of Blake’s proverbs I memorized when I was an Iona undergraduate & they’ve stayed with me all my life.  And they seem as true to me today as they did in the 1960s.

3. Fake It. Sometimes you will have to fake it, you will have to make it up out of nothing, you will have to just go on your nerve, as the great poet Frank O’Hara once prescribed, and those are often the times when you break through to a sense of clarity & insight about yourself. O’Hara also wrote, in one of his poems, that

            the only thing to do is simply continue

            is that simple

            yes, it is simple because it is the only  thing to do

            can you do it

            yes, you can because it is the only thing to do

I have always found great comfort in those lines, in their wonderful assertion of spirit & tenacity.  And speaking of faking it, don’t forget the Imposter Syndrome, that sense we have that we’re all just pretending to be something we’re not. It’s okay, it’s all part of faking it. Let it go. Live with it. We are all imposters. Forgive yourself (see #10).

2. Risk Taking—Never get the extended warranty. And always buy the raffle ticket—I’ve won the raffle at least 3 times in my life; if you want to be an opera singer, or work with chimpanzees, or start your own detective agency, don’t wait till you’re an old person. On the other hand, don’t drive blindfolded.   

1.The last & most important of the top 10 ways to ultimate success & happiness in life—The  Moll Niland Principle.  My mother was a farmgirl named Bridie Flynn from Loughrea in county Galway in Ireland. She was one of 11 children, and she died in 1962 when I was 16 and still in high school, and I still miss her, all these years later. Out of those 11 in her family, only 3, my mother and 2 of her brothers, came to the U.S. So I have many relatives back in Ireland, including cousins from Ballyvaughan, county Clare, on my father’s side. And in 1980 I went over there with my band—the one, true, authentic Celtic Thunder (not to be confused with that corporate PBS tv program that, shall we say, borrowed my group’s name)—and asked my then-girlfriend Susan, whom I married the following year, to come with us.  

      My mother, Bridie Flynn (seated, wearing the dress with the white collar) with relatives and neighbors. Cahercrea, Loughrea, Co. Galway, Ireland, 1930. © Winch-Flynn family.

During that trip, we had many adventures, but the highlight for me was when I took Susan to meet my Auntie Moll, the eldest of my mother’s siblings, amazingly still alive & going strong in 1980 at around age 90.

She lived in a very humble, thatched-roof cottage in the countryside, where she still cooked on an open-hearth turf fire. She had these beautiful, big eyes and a benevolent aura about her. Recalling her now, remembering the richness of her spirit, brings to my mind the title of a well-known traditional Irish tune called “Contentment Is Wealth.” Susan and I sat next to each other, Auntie Moll facing us. We chatted for a bit, but then at one point she took hold of our hands, grabbed them firmly, and looked us both in the eye and said, “Are ye enjoying life?”   We thought for a moment, because it felt like the most important question we’d ever been asked, & then said, yes we were. She squeezed our hands happily and said, “That’s good. Enjoy life.”  I know—it’s not a complex or arcane idea, but coming from this extraordinary old woman who had lived so long & knew so much, it felt to us like the most profound and profoundly simple & necessary lesson of human existence:

                                                                     ENJOY LIFE.                                 

Thank you, and congratulations to all of you.

                                             Jesse Winch and Terence Winch talking with Auntie Moll Niland, Galway, 1980. ©Terence Winch
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Credits:

Iona President Joseph Nyre and Terence Winch, Madison Square Garden, 2014

Portrait of James Baldwin by Dane Shue; Flannery O'Connor by Lauren Pope.

George Orwell (artist unknown).

Frank O'Hara portrait by Alice Neel, 1960; William Blake, self-portrait, 1802.

"Contentment Is Wealth" and "Larry the Beer Drinker" played here on button accordion by Andrew McNamara.

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Comments on the original 2014 posting of this piece:

Terence Winch makes me laugh and cry at the same time. Forgive my error, I meant Dr. Terence makes me laugh and cry; and his honest emotion must have stirred those graduates, as it has us, for years. Grace Cavalieri 

You can be sure that I'll be sharing the "The Moll Niland Principle" with my little boy later on, when I'm telling Jonah about how to cope with the vicissitudes of life. The principle of "faking it" is something best learned early on, too... Hope your voice did not suffer overmuch from your lesson on contentment as true wealth. James Lee Thorpe 

Terence, This is absolutely priceless--wonderful from top to toe, and in reverse order no less.  Congratulations and thank you! Aram Saroyan 

Glad I was there to hear this in person Terence, and as one of those who encouraged you to put this on the net, glad you did. Reading it again after having heard it live, it seems to me even more witty and wise. And the photos only add to the personal testimony aspect of it. I watched as the mostly bored or tired or been-through-it-before faculty members in their medieval garb behind you on stage slowly registered that this commencement address was not the usual and their faces lit up and their mouths began to smile from the impact of your way with words and the truth of them. Happy for all that you share your brilliance with the rest of us. Michael Lally

Terence, the life lessons are true and offered with compassion and humility. I will be on sabbatical this fall and will carry them with me, and read them often. Thank you. Tom Tom Murphy 

This is wonderful and inspiring, Terry! Thanks for sharing it with the world. I was just reviewing NPR's Best Commencement Speeches database and I think they need to include this in it. Abbie Mulvihill

Terence Winch, like his Roman namesake, is a motherfucker. Now, that can be taken many ways but I am referring to the original Latin meaning. That is to say, he's a motherfucker. See? I mean, damn, Terry. You're...well, you know. Great speech. I hope a few of the grads were sober and can repeat to their hammered friends at a later date. Michael O'Keefe

I have now read this speech twice. It was better the second time around and I loved it the first. I may read it everyday. And I never exaggerate. Michael O'Keefe 

Absolutely loved this, Terence. The best part is your Aunt Moll story. Ain't it the truth? I hope you are finer than frogs hair sitting on a split wood fence blowing in the wind these days. Tom Davis 

I will never forgive myself for reading this speech. I am so pissed off, I am kicking myself. I will never get my teeth cleaned again. I give up. I just sent all my money to Brendan Mulvihill, perhaps the greatest fiddler there is on this planet. All of my intangible power has gone up on smoke. All of my attentiveness is mindless. My nerves are now shot because I waited until I was an old person. I despise the false Celtic Thunder: their very existence prevents me from enjoying life. I am speechless. I would have been there to hear this psychedelic discourse, but I was kissing something goodbye. I will never forgive myself. Also, I loved the pictures. Doug Lang

This is probably the most useful AND beautiful commencement addresses ever. I am sharing it with my children ("commenced" many years ago) and my grandchildren, who are in the process. Slainte, lad, and thank you. Clarinda

Terence, I would expect your other fellow gaels as well as me to find advisories #8-9-10 a lifetime's challenge. Though eventually #8 does get easier, as the teeth become mere memory items. Really the only one I've ever actually been able to achieve was #3, and that only sporadically, less and less with the years... finally, it's necessary (for me, that is, not you, of course!!) to resolve to never go among the public. Spare them, they didn't do it. Tom Clark 

Kudos, Doc. Very fine speech. But how the hell did this happen? Brer Reilly must be spinning in his sepulcher. Michael Palma 

Dear Michael: I really don't know. When Iona contacted me, I asked if they had really vetted me to their complete satisfaction. They said: yes. But I must say that everyone connected to the event was warm & gracious. The invitation may go back to the 2007 reading that Bill Nevins, Angelo Verga, and I did on campus, which seemed to make a good impression. I was very sad to learn at the commencement that Tom Pendleton & Peter Chedda, both of whom were at the '07 event, have recently passed away. TW

Iona College displayed impeccable taste and courted sweet serendipity when it invited Terence Winch, class of 1967, to give the keynote speech at its graduate school commencement. Like his justly celebrated verse and stories, Terence Winch's inspired, inspiring talk rang with the authority of someone who had taken the "L" train often and knew its stops all too well: loved (see #1), lived (see all), livid (see #9), loathed (see #10), lauded (see #2), ludic (see all), and limpid (see all). It's one "L" of a speech from one hell of a writer and speaker. Earle Hitchner

Man, they're just givin' away those Iona honorary doctorates. Good shit, T. Stephen Reichert 

Dear Terence, Lovely words--sincerity and humor in equal measure. You have provided poetry lovers and music lovers like me with great gifts over the years and I am delighted that you have received this award from your old school. Congrats, Doctor. Eamonn Wall

Dear Terence, you'll never know how many words of your wisdom I've carried with me since NMAA days. So glad to see that young minds will continue to benefit. Thank you, friend. Karen Siatras

Terence, this wonderful address must have kept the graduates riveted, often smiling, occasionally laughing, and always relieved that they were not hearing the usual run of yawn-inducing bromides. If the hood fits, wear it. It fits very well, and it came not a moment too soon. I suggest you wear it around the neighborhood—at the grocery store, when filling up the gas tank, shopping for floss, etc. When I receive my own honorary degree and am asked to give the commencement address, I may pay you the honor of stealing yours. William McPherson 

You may have just knocked the "Ten Commandments" off their perennial perch with your "Top Ten Ways to Ultimate Success & Happiness in Life," Terence. Moses supposes no more. After all, the tablets he brought down from Mount Sinai had no mention of the vital importance of dental hygiene. Let's face it: he never flossed. You may have (slight cringe coming) gummed up the works for him. Your evocation of the great Irish traditional tune "Contentment Is Wealth" could not have been better done. And "Moll Niland’s Principle" is now engraved on my heart. Final observation: your gift for prose sparkles like your gift for poetry. Dr. Earle Hitchner | July 22, 2022 at 07:24 PM

This is a veritable Gael-storm of wisdom, insight, illumination, and wit conveyed with alternatingly matchless verve and repose. In short, it's another unforgettable Winch in time. My only regret is not crashing that Madison Square Garden party, surreptitiously slinking into a front seat, and unfailingly buttressing the applause. I'd even happily pretend to mumble-sing the Iona College fight song to prevent security from ousting me. If you were a psychiatrist, Terence, you'd need a waiting room the size of Madison Square Garden. Come to think of it: you did. I envy those who were there. Your prescriptively potent "Contentment Is Wealth: The Top Ten Ways to Ultimate Success & Happiness in Life" did not have a single sugar pill in it. In a word: WOW! For clarifying and alleviating what still ails us all, and then showing us the way forward or, more desirably, out, THANK YOU!  Dr. Earle Hitchner

This post first ran on the Best American Poetry blog on May 24, 2014. 

©Terence Winch  

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