Frank Bruni:
I’d been on the faculty of Duke University and
delivering that spiel for more than two years before I realized that each
component of it was about the same quality: humility. The grammar-and-spelling
bit was about surrendering to an established and easily understood way of doing
things that eschewed wild individualism in favor of a common mode of
communication. It showed respect for tradition, which is a force that binds us,
a folding of the self into a greater whole. The voices bit — well, that’s obvious.
It’s a reminder that we share the stages of our communities, our countries, our
worlds, with many other actors and should conduct ourselves in a manner that
recognizes this fact. And “it’s complicated” is a bulwark against arrogance,
absolutism, purity, zeal.