海角大神

Jin Park has a message for you: Your talents are not really your own. The graduating Harvard senior said as much during the university鈥檚 recent commencement ceremonies.

鈥淥ur particular positions within the web of society come to us most of all through fortune, not desert,鈥� he said. Therefore, he added, 鈥渨e must think about our talents as a collective asset.鈥�

The comment captures the thought radiating from many college campuses today. Privilege is a fraught topic, economically and racially. One tendency can be to think of it in a zero-sum way 鈥撀爐hat advancement takes from one to give to another. By that reckoning, 鈥渃ollective鈥� thinking sometimes sounds like just making everyone average.

But that鈥檚 not really what Mr. Park was saying. When we realize that so much of our success is built from good beyond our control 鈥撀燽e it loving parents, a stable community, or dedicated teachers or mentors 鈥� we realize that that good is greater than us, and we have just had the fortune to share it. This turns that zero-sum equation on its head. Goodness, when shared, grows. Free market capitalism essentially operates on that principle.

By that reckoning, one of the most powerful questions anyone can ask, Park said, is not 鈥淲hat am I going to do with my talents?鈥�; it is 鈥淲hat am I going to do for others with my talents?鈥�

Here are our five stories for the day, which look at the political value of home, an improbable natural wonder, and the power of language. 聽