I still have no idea where the impulse came from, but I dug up a copy of Baz Luhurmann’s 1999 release Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sun­screen) this morn­ing.  As I lis­tened with a decade of addi­tional expe­ri­ence under my belt, I’ve real­ized how sim­ple wis­dom can be, and how we tend to ignore that of those who are fur­ther down the path then ourselves.

As I progress through Lead­er­ship Cal­gary, the focus shifts fre­quently back to build­ing wis­dom in to our ways of think­ing and being. At times the prospect (and in fact the process of get­ting there) seems immea­sur­ably daunt­ing.  After list­ing to this record­ing for the first time in ten years  though, I real­ize that wis­dom really can be sim­ple.. to those that posses it.  It’s the getting-there that’s difficult.

Baz Lehur­mann: Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen)

Ladies and Gen­tle­men of the class of ’99, wear sunscreen.

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sun­screen would be
it. The long term ben­e­fits of sun­screen have been proved by
sci­en­tists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reli­able
than my own mean­der­ing experience…

I will dis­pense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth; oh nev­er­mind; you will not
under­stand the power and beauty of your youth until they have faded.
But trust me, in 20 years you’ll look back at pho­tos of your­self and
recall in a way you can’t grasp now how much pos­si­bil­ity lay before
you and how fab­u­lous you really looked… You’re not as fat as you
imagine.

Don’t worry about the future; or worry, but know that wor­ry­ing is as
effec­tive as try­ing to solve an alge­bra equa­tion by chew­ing
bub­blegum. The real trou­bles in your life are apt to be things that
never crossed your wor­ried mind; the kind that blind­side you at 4pm
on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing every­day that scares you

Sing

Don’t be reck­less with other people’s hearts, don’t put up with
peo­ple who are reck­less with yours.

Floss

Don’t waste your time on jeal­ousy; some­times you’re ahead, some­times
you’re behind… the race is long, and in the end, it’s only with
yourself.

Remem­ber the com­pli­ments you receive, for­get the insults; if you
suc­ceed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old love let­ters, throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch

Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your
life…the most inter­est­ing peo­ple I know didn’t know at 22 what they
wanted to do with their lives, some of the most inter­est­ing 40 year
olds I know still don’t.

Get plenty of calcium.

Be kind to your knees, you’ll miss them when they’re gone.

Maybe you’ll marry, maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll have chil­dren, maybe
you won’t, maybe you’ll divorce at 40, maybe you’ll dance the funky
chicken on your 75th wed­ding anniversary…what ever you do, don’t
con­grat­u­late your­self too much or berate your­self either – your
choices are half chance, so are every­body else’s. Enjoy your body,
use it every way you can…don’t be afraid of it, or what other peo­ple
think of it, it’s the great­est instru­ment you’ll ever own..

Dance… even if you have nowhere to do it but in your own liv­ing room.

Read the direc­tions, even if you don’t fol­low them.

Do NOT read beauty mag­a­zines, they will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your par­ents, you never know when they’ll be gone for good.

Be nice to your sib­lings; they are the best link to your past and the
peo­ple most likely to stick with you in the future.

Under­stand that friends come and go, but for the pre­cious few you
should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geog­ra­phy and
lifestyle because the older you get, the more you need the peo­ple you
knew when you were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard; live
in North­ern Cal­i­for­nia once, but leave before it makes you soft.

Travel.

Accept cer­tain inalien­able truths, prices will rise, politi­cians will
phi­lan­der, you too will get old, and when you do you’ll fan­ta­size
that when you were young prices were rea­son­able, politi­cians were
noble and chil­dren respected their elders.

Respect your elders.

Don’t expect any­one else to sup­port you. Maybe you have a trust fund,
maybe you have a wealthy spouse; but you never know when either one
might run out.

Don’t mess too much with your hair, or by the time you’re 40, it will
look 85.

Be care­ful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who
sup­ply it. Advice is a form of nos­tal­gia, dis­pens­ing it is a way of
fish­ing the past from the dis­posal, wip­ing it off, paint­ing over the
ugly parts and recy­cling it for more than
it’s worth.

But trust me on the sunscreen…