Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary says the folk group's sing-along "Puff the Magic Dragon" has two meanings, and neither is about drugs as once rumored.
"It's ostensibly a song about the moment of loss of innocence. When that moment occurs, it is sad indeed," the singer told 300 Augsburg College graduates in Minneapolis. "But it's about something else. It is about the loss of our ideals."In his commencement speech Sunday, Yarrow spliced folk songs with comments on the need for global thinking and the power of the individual to bring about change.
Yarrow is affiliated with the college's Center for Global Education, which arranges for educational travel to the Third World.
"If you want to, we can make history together," he said. "If you acknowledge there is suffering, think globally, act globally. If there is a single lesson from the '60s, it is the belief in our own capacities as individuals. We all matter."