Journal of Sacred Work

We have a finite amount of time. Whether short or long, it doesn’t matter. Life
is to be lived.    -Professor Randy Pausch

   It’s a strange sight. There he is on the stage, young, vital looking, laughing. And he is laughing about the fact that he is dying. Professor Pausch has pancreatic cancer and is given just a few months to live. Still feeling well, he decided to give one last lecture.
   The lecture is making the internet rounds and was forwarded to me by my friend, Toni Carter. You can see the beginning 18 minute segment at www.abcnews.com or the whole thing (in 10 minute pieces) on YouTube via www.cmu.edu (Carnegie Mellon’s website – see table of contents on the left side of page) The messages Professor Pausch shares with us may not be as powerful as the experience of watching him deliver them…

   What would you say if you had one hour left to speak to the world? Part of Pausch’s message is that he wants us to have fun with our lives. He also wants us to hold fast to our dreams. And he shares his childhood dreams with us in a very entertaining way.
   The lecture is playful and mostly light-hearted. We can tell that Randy is a likable guy and we can only wonder at the anomaly before us. How can such a healthy-looking fellow be so close to death? How can he be talking to us tear-free, his lovely wife just a few feet away in the front row, his young children smiling out at us from a slide on the screen?

   The very fact that Dr. Pausch’s presentation is so cheerful is one of the reasons we keep watching. And it turns out the gifts he offers are ones he receives as well as giving. You can tell he’s grateful to have the chance to be heard as never before. And he has the grace and charisma to make the most of his special opportunity.
   Not many of us will have the chance to make a final speech in such circumstances. But, of course, we are all dying. So the question becomes, as Pausch tells us, not how we die but how we are living. We all want to say about our lives that we have lived with joy. Perhaps we listen and learn more about how to live this message more closely when it comes from someone who is steps from the grave.