One of the things I received for father’s Day this year is the audio book of “The last lecture” by Randy Pausch. Now, for those of you who’ve been living under a rock for the last few weeks, Randy Pausch is a 47 years old professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University, who was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer, and was told he has between 3 to 6 months of good health left. He has 3 young children. On September 18th 2007, he gave his “last lecture” entitled “Really achieving your childhood dreams”, which became a huge internet hit, and was viewed over a million times on youtube on the first month.
The presentation is great, at no time does it seem to be gratuitous, or soliciting. The talk is at some times uplifting, deeply moving at others. Listening to this man who will never have the opportunity to see his children grow into adulthood, I could not help but wonder; should life ever deal me such a hand, what would be my last contribution to the world? What lasting little wisdom I possess would I try to impart to my children ? How does a man attempt at transferring a lifetime of life lessons to children who cannot even read yet ? How are they going to remember their father ? Will they understand the kind of man their father was through an hour long lecture ?
Do yourself a favor, take an hour of your time, and watch the video, it is well worth the effort and will help you reassess your troubles….
Randy’s video can be seen here.
