I woke up to a wonderful e-mail this morning. It said I should look by my front door.... Needless to say I immediately found a gift from a dear friend of ours. A beautiful card and a book entitled "The Last Lecture" by Randy Pausch. I can't wait to start reading it. He was a Professor of Computer Science, Human Computer Interaction, and Design at Carnegie Mellon University.
Professors are asked to consider their demise and to ruminate on what matters most to them. What wisdom would they impart to the world if we knew it was our last chance? If we had to vanish tomorrow, what would we want as our legacy?
He had been diagnosed with terminal cancer prior to giving his last lecture and his lecture was about the importance of overcoming obstacles, of enabling the dreams of others, of seizing every moment (because "time is all you have .... and you may find one day that you have less than you think." He said "We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand." Isn't that the truth.
Have a great Sunday!
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I have heard part of his last lecture, though not all of it. I suspect we would all live differently, if we could make ourselves accept and believe that there is very little we really control. What we can control, how we use our time (at least some it) is truly something we should go about doing. We keep saying next month, when I retire, whatever.
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