I stayed home from work today...mainly because I just needed a "mental health" day away from the office. It happens from time to time. Besides, I have vacation, personal, and sick time to spare, so I decided to use a day to stay home and just "chill." I ended up sleeping-in until almost 1:00p.m., so when I do that, I know my body needs the extra rest.
Anyway, I had taped an episode of "Oprah" earlier in the week and had never gotten around to watching it. So, thinking there was no time like the present, I queued the VCR and clicked "play" and started to watch. It turns out this was a repeat episode that first aired back in March. It was about Kris Carr and Randy Pausch, P.H.D. Both individuals have been diagnosed with terminal cancer.
Ms. Carr's is a rare form that has given rise to tumors on her liver and lungs. Dr. Pausch has pancreatic cancer, and we all know what that means. Actually, I had heard of Dr. Pausch, had seen snippets of his, now famous, "Last Lecture," that he gave at Carnegie Mellon University on September 18, 2007. Today, I had the opportunity to focus my attention fully to his story, and it is in a word... inspiring...especially to a person who spends a fair amount of time thinking about death. (Can't help it, I have most of my life.)
Randy gave a scaled-down version of his speech on Oprah's show, which you can watch by clicking on the video below, which is made available by TheArchfiend on YouTube. (Ever wonder how people come up with their Internet ids?) The link for the entire hour and sixteen minute speech can be found by clicking on this link to The Last Lecture; it is well worth the viewing.
This post is not meant to be morbid. I can't honestly say that it will make a difference to me personally as to how I view my life...past and present...because I have, much to my chagrin, become a pretty jaded and cynical person in my old age. It is, however, nice to be reminded now and again that there are some incredibly remarkable people out there, and Ms. Carr and Dr. Pausch are two of them.
I leave you with a Leonardo da Vinci quote (courtesy of Oprah): "As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so life well-used brings happy death." Here's wishing you all happy days and a long, happy life.
With a special THANK YOU to Music Wench for teaching me how to do the hyperlink function. Can you believe I did it on the first try? Actually, the second, but still, my learning curve is usually much longer than that. Thank you!!
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4 comments:
I've heard snippets of Dr. Pausch and I actually have the book "The Last Lecture." As with my other books, it's sitting there in my den waiting to be read.
Again, we seem a lot alike. I, too find that I am jaded and cynical most of the time. But then people like this come along and it makes me feel good to know that there are great people out there like this.
Thanks for sharing that.
And good for you! I occasionally take 'mental health' days as well. It's healthy. :-)
I just ordered "The Last Lecture" today from Amazon. Like you, I am good about buying books, but lazy about getting them read. LOL
Glad you liked the post. Both people highlighted on Oprah had remarkable spirit.
It is wonderful (and important) to be reminded there are incredible people out there...Sometimes we forget there is still a lot to learn.
Glad to hear you took a mental health day. We all need those!
Personally, I don't think there's anything 'morbid' in discussing death. Other than taxes, it's the only certainty in life. The (retired) cyclist Lance Armstrong is one of my inspirations. Having been diagnosed with an extremely vicious and advanced form of cancer, he really shouldn't be here at all - but there he is. However, as he wrote in his book, he has no explanation as to why he survived when others fought just as hard but didn't.
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