The topic in George Saunders's 'Advice to Graduates' is timeless advice. The issue of people
being more kind to one another has been, and most likely will be, an issue for many years. It is in the
innate nature of being human to focus on oneself. It is not as if, at that moment, he was speaking to or of
an event in which people were outright unkind to one another; he is making a speech at a college
commencement. He tells students who may or may not have realized it yet that it is necessary to show
kindness to others. Many may never realize this, and many times it depends on the environment in
which one grew up in, but one must always consider others' environments and life circumstances before
acting and reacting. We should not limit kindness either, nor exclude select people from our kindness
based on skin color, socioeconomic status, age, religion, who their mother and father are, who they
voted for in the last election, if their second toe is longer than the big one, or the multitude of other
random things that people judge others based on. Many, many centuries ago, Confucius claimed that we
should not impose on others what we would not want for ourselves, and no matter what you believe, or
believe in, this rule typically applies. Each religion has its own version of this rule, as well as most
moral societal codes, including the general American law (as our country separates the church from the
state).

This topic of kindness is urgent. Seemingly the world is straying farther from this idea, and many
people are engaging in wars, disputes that involve violence because of this. To me, kindness extends
among many things to me, including but not limited to engaging the ideas of others, even if we are not
necessarily in agreement. But kindness doesn't even necessarily have to be this big. It can be as simple
as holding the door for someone or smiling in passing. As Saunders begins his proposal to the audience,
he begins with a short anecdote. This anecdote is useful because he sets up a scenario that probably most
people in the audience have experienced; they have been an active teaser, been made fun of or maybe
been a person who has been a witness and did nothing, nor said anything, to protest. Also probably
experienced fairly recently, as they are not much past the years of bullying, if they are at all. What
Saunders does in a way is makes this issue timely; he makes it applicable to that precise moment. He
comes at these students as an elder with advice for them, saying he has been where they are, and is past
that now. Looking back he expresses his regret, the one thing that he regrets most in life: he regrets not
being kinder. He regrets what he refers to as 'failures of kindness', and goes on to describe them as,
'The moments when another human being was there, in front of me, suffering, and I
responded' sensibly. Reservedly. Mildly.' However, Saunders speaks of the topic generally, so as to
say just doing some small act of kindness will suffice. In other words, an act of kindness is an act of
kindness; it's not how big, it's just that it has been done. We forget sometimes amongst the hustle and
bustle what it is to be human, in the sense that we forget to understand that other people around us also
have feelings similar to ours. We get so caught up in the day-to-day rat race, that our minds are
overtaken by the materialistic aspects of society that cause us to be selfish, and the idea of simply being
nice to people falls by the wayside. Aristotle once claimed, 'We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence,
then, is not an act, but a habit.' This applies as well to being kind. We must practice kindness to be kind.
And it might seem difficult but it often does not take a lot of effort to commit an act of kindness once we
practice kindness. And this is what Saunders asserts to the students. It is better to begin sooner than later
the habit of kindness.

Saunders also considers alternate opinions to his argument. He phrases it in a specific way, and
begins by asking the audience who they remember fondly. The assumption is that the audience will
consent to his answer: those who were kind to us. Then Saunders asks, 'So how come we can't be
kinder to people?' He introduces reasons why we may not be nicer, what he believes about the issue.
First he makes the general claim, 'We're central to the universe (that is, our personal story is the main
and most interesting story, the only story really'; then Saunders goes on to say, 'We're separate from
the universe (there's US and then, out there, all that other junk ' dogs and swing-sets, and the State
Nebraska and low-hanging clouds and, you know, other people), and lastly, 'we're permanent (death is
real, o.k., sure ' for you but not for me).' Following this reasoning Saunders then recognizes that
perhaps we know better, but that this is more of an instinctual feeling. He then poses the question of how
we go about ignoring our instincts, how we can become kinder despite these innate beliefs. He argues
that it may come with age, that as we get older we become less selfish and more loving most probably
due to life experiences, but it may take real lows and others coming to our rescue, before we realize this.

Saunders questions the possibilities of being kind, while keeping in mind the age of his audience,
and therefore their mindset. College graduates are anxious, always anxious and it is an overwhelming
feeling ' what will they become, do they have what it takes? He recognizes something else, and
vocalizes it: that specifically in this generation, there is cycle in terms of life paths in a sense, that we
must do certain things. We must do well in high school to get into a good college, do well in college so
we can obtain a good job, so as to make 'good' money, have a comfortable life, a nice 'good' home, and
be desirable; in a sense we may do it somewhat blindly, or in my opinion without appreciation for it. He
states that this may seem all good, in the sense, that we must be our best selves before we can perhaps
go out and be kind to others. Sunders then suggests that we must not let these aspects of life, of success,
get in the way of being kind to others though, as it is very easy to letting our ideas of success take up our
whole schema of life and forget about the internally important things. One of those internally important
things being kindness. Since this is the general path our lives are going to take anyway ' we will
gradually become kinder and more loving ' Saunders suggests that we must just go ahead and speed the
process up. Saunders compels the audience again to concede to the fact that it is going to happen, that
we will be kind to others, and that we might as well just get to it faster.

Saunders uses the process of stasis by describing that kindness does exist. Further than that,
Saunders claims that, in itself, kindness is a good, which he effectively implies when claiming that we
ultimately should make time for it. The concept of what context we can include kindness in is defined '
the story of the girl who was picked on ' as well as what kindness is not in the context of this example.
Saunders explores why we may not engage in kindness on a moment to moment basis, or even daily
basis, but leads to the idea that we can change ourselves to implement kindness in our daily lives. He
goes on further to say that eventually we will become kind through natural experiences in our lives and
thus we should seek to incorporate kindness into our lives as a habit now, as opposed to later, or
attempting to avoid it altogether. Alluded to in the argument is the claim that engaging in being kind is
right and honorable; he does so by claiming that it is one of the things he regrets to have not done more
of in his life, and implicating that we will inevitably feel the same way one day when we reach a similar
juncture in life.. He, in a way, compares it to the audience's ideals of being successful. However, he says
unlike kindness, accomplishment is unreliable, and we shouldn't let the idea of succeeding overshadow
the 'big questions' and allow them to go unanswered. Specifically Saunders implies whether we should
let the idea of success get in the way of kindness; however, he really bypasses the question of should we
by implying that we should. Immediately he enters right into the questions of why we do not already
practice kindness regularly, describes what we can do to change this behavior, and what actions would
be desirable (in this particular situation, executing kindness). Action is necessary to implement change;
that is, we must change the way we behave to incorporate more kindness. He concludes by arguing that
selfishness is a sickness which we all have innately, but the cure is kindness towards others. The other
things ' becoming rich and famous, traveling the world, falling in love ' make your being trivial, if
kindness is not incorporated. Saunders finally asserts that one must believe the soul exists to be on the
right path towards nurturing it; he supports his statement by emphasizing historical figures of kindness
and claiming that perhaps one day, by beginning at that moment, we can contribute as much as they
have.

