Randy Pausch, the Carnegie Mellon professor whose you tube videos of his “Last Lecture,” reach and inspired millions of viewers, died this past Friday. He was 47. His passing was due to Pancreatic Cancer.
After watching his lecture video, I am again reminded of how powerful having to answer this question is.
“What would you do if you knew you had less than 6 months to live”?
For Randy this wasn’t a hypothetical question. And then again, which of us knows if we even have that long! And I think that’s where , along with many others struggle sometimes. We have moment of clarity, where deep down, we know what are the most important things in life. The things, ideas, or people, that deserve emphasis and priority. But something strange seems to happen. The dreams of our childhood seem to be slipping, and re-prioritizing themselves to the bottom of the list. What we know matters most, seems at many times to receive the least attention. For some it’s the little kids we know grow up fast, that still get less attention than the job we hate. For others this struggle of values shows itself in other areas of of life. Our deepest values and reality enter into an ironic and inverse relationship.
I took a death and dying class in college, that really changed my outlook on a lot of things. I realized, and continue to do so, that this inconvenient question of death, real or hypothetical, can sharpen our focus on what we deeply value most. It reminds us of the mounting tension in our lives, caused by the discrepancies between what we value and how we are actually living. When I looked over the burial site of my grandfather, and the clumps of dirt, fell like rain upon the top of his wooden casket, I was reminded. Whenever a close friend or family looses a loved one, we are reminded. Whenever we see a life lived according to the values one holds dear, we are inspired. It’s attractive. It’s enabling.
Let us not wait to “walk through the valley and the shadow of death” to be motivated towards reconciling the incongruous areas in our lives. Today, join me, in being inspired by the life and gift given by Randy Pausch(and admittedly more for his wife and kids). I am blessed to vicariously receive the clarity gained by his deaths impending visit; while remaining in this world to live it out. By living it out, we pay the highest tribute to those, who share this gift in death.
Enjoy the video, and feel free to leave comments about its effect on you, or how you would respond in a similar situation.
Written by Veron Graham
Topics: Blog