We celebrate our son Tim's high school graduation today, so I am taking a day off from golf.  It seems appropriate to offer the best advice to graduates I have read, a piece written almost 10 years ago and attributed, falsely, as a commencement address at MIT by the late author Kurt Vonnegut.  It actually was written by a columnist in Chicago, Mary Schmich. Congratulations to Tim and all other grads.

    Ladies and gentlemen of the class of '97: 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, never mind.  You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they've 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 are 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 bubble gum.  The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4 pm on some idle Tuesday.

    Do one thing every day 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 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.  Whatever 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 of 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 your 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're your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future. Understand that friends come and go, but with a 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 who knew you 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'll 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.

    The news in the last two days has not been good for those looking to sell their homes.  But for those looking to sell and then buy something else, especially a new home from one of the major builders, the news isn't all that bad.
    On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Commerce reported that the median price of a new home had dropped 11.1 percent between March and April, and almost 11 percent below the same month a year earlier.  Sales of new single-family homes jumped by 16.2 March to April, signaling nothing less than a fire sale by builders.
    Then yesterday, more bad news:  Sales of existing homes dropped 2.6 percent between March and April after dropping 7.9 percent the previous month.  The median price of homes sold in April dropped a moderate .8 percent, but median prices are whimsical; given the sub-prime lending problems, fewer homes at the lower end of the spectrum may have sold in the month, artificially inflating the median.
    So where is the silver lining.  Sales of existing homes slipped only 1.2 percent in the South, compared with 8.8 percent in the Northeast.  The slightest decline was in the Midwest, just .7 percent, but how many people are contemplating retiring to a golf course community in Iowa (apologies to Iowa, a great state in all other regards)? 

    In terms of new home sales, the South led the way with a whopping 27.8 percent increase compared with just a 3.8 percent increase in the Northeast.

    You have heard it here before.  The spread between prices in the North and South are widening.  If you really, really want to move South, don't be too greedy about pricing your house.  You likely made as much as 50 percent in the five years before the current bust.  Consider giving back a little of it just to get out from under, and start that new life below the Mason-Dixon line.     

    The South will rise again...and again.