"If today is the last day of my life, am I going to do what I'm about to do today?" This was the question that Steve Jobs brought up when he was presenting his famous stay-hungry-stay-foolish lecture in Stanford University. This is where I wrote about nearly one year ago.I think after passing enough years in this world, now, it is time to accept this fact about myself that I never could and never can act not hyper-sensitive towards the reality called death. I tried to see it from different sights that one could possibly look but it never worked. I've had so much difficulty to even participate in a funeral and it gets worse when the person that passed away is someone that I know or is a relative. If I attend the funeral, the least that will happen is not being able to eat which in the worst case scenario, I might even end up physically sick.
I said all these to talk about " The last lecture", the lecture that Randy Pausch - a university professor- gave, in fact, to his three children to make them know in the future that who their father was, what he did and achieved in his life since he would no longer have enough time because of his cancer. But this lecture got the attention of people and has been downloaded over 6 millions times.
This is the second lecture that has reached deeply into my heart and my mind in less than one year.
I admire this man not only because he's incredibly courages, smart and still passionate even when it comes to his death which he is, but because he stands and talks about his life.
Isn't it just the most amazing celebration of life that one can have before his own funeral? It's painful and so beautiful...
5 comments:
ya, his story made a big mixed emotional impact on me too...
I've had the experience of being close to someone who knew he was dying young. These people are really different. It's like they turn their own curse into a blessing towards others.
Wow! Amazingly coincidentally (does it make sense?!) I was thinking about this man and his talk last week and so many questions: is he still alive? What is he doing? What if he stays alive after all? Is a miracle possible? Maybe the passions in so many people who listened to and watched his talk work and keep him alive, and so on.
I have been almost in peace with death. I have accepted it as part of life, although maybe not a very pleasant part, but sometimes even necessary...The most unbearable ones are when young people die, all of a sudden, and the most relieving case is when death can actually free a beloved one from pain, that death is even a gift.
That being said, the "missing" feeling is always with the remaining family and friends.
I myself prefer to mourn and live with the memories, rather then kill myself on the grave, although this latter one is more accepted and even encouraged in our culture.
Jeerjeerake aziz,
Yes,indeed.I think for some reasons, some very rare people have this ability to make the most of even bitter situations. They embrace life;truly extraordinary people!
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Nava jan,
I do hope he's getting better by now.You know,the main reason for me to have this feeling about death is that,I don't see any convincing words that can decrease the missing part.
We love someone and have tons of memories with him/her that makes an important part of us as what it is and all of a sudden that person just disappears as if he/she was never alive! And when we miss seeing, talking and having that dear one and want him/her back to the life, it's just impossible and to me it's extremely hurtful and full of pain that no logic can heal that pain ...
So nice site!
Vida maravilhosa!
How inspiring Randy Pausch is! If you liked "The Last Lecture", another fantastic memoir I just read and highly recommend is "My Stroke of Insight" by Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor. Her TEDTalk video (ted.com) has been seen as many times as The Last Lecture I think, and Oprah did 4 shows on her book, so there are a lot of similarities. In My Stroke of Insight, there's a happy ending though. It's an incredible story! I hear they're making it into a movie.
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