Helms invoked F. Scott Fitzgerald's test of first-rate intelligence — holding two opposing ideas simultaneously while still functioning — and challenged graduates to apply it to the deepest contradictions of life. He argued that pain, suffering, and ignorance make no sense, but neither do beauty, compassion, and love. Rather than choosing nihilistic defeatism and retreating to Ben & Jerry's and Netflix, he urged graduates to see this awareness as liberating, and to choose which half of the 'pomegranate' to bite into.