A Simple Thing
- Mr. Tushman delivers a beautiful and moving speech, at the heart of which is the theme of kindness.
- Sure everyone's gotten a bit taller and stronger and hopefully smarter, but to Mr. Tushman, the greatest measure of success is "what you've done with your time, how you've chosen to spend your days, and whom you have touched this year" (8.A Simple Thing.10).
- Quoting from J.M. Barrie's A Little White Bird he reads, "Shall we make a new rule of life… always try to be a little kinder than is necessary?" (8.A Simple Thing.13)
- He reads from Christopher Nolan's Under the Eye of the Clock: "It was at moments such as these that Joseph recognized the face of God in human form. It glimmered in their kindness to him, it glowed in their keenness, it hinted in their caring, indeed it caressed in their gaze" (8.A Simple Thing.17).
- The bottom line from Mr. Tushman's point of view is that "If every single person in this room made it a rule that wherever you are, wherever you can, you will try to act a little kinder than is necessary—the world really would be a better place" (8.A Simple Thing.23).