Randy Pausch is still kickin'

I last posted about Randy in mid-February. At that time he'd beaten the odds on expected survival. Several weeks later he testified before a Congressional subcommittee.

Please go have a look at his web site, which has a link to his 8 minutes of testimony. He's a really persuasive speaker.

There's also a promo for an ABC News show next Weds, 4/9, about his famous Last Lecture. I personally can't stand Diane Sawyer's overly emotional approach to everything, but I'll be taping and watching the show. (Not surprisingly, the show is timed to coincide with the release of the book about his lecture, one day earlier.)

His daily update journal, also linked from his site, details that his condition is worsening measurably, and in his testimony his voice now trembles when he talks about his family. Yet he remains so committed to being fully alive in every way that he can - that's what I love about him. In that way, he's my brother, in more than just the universal sense.

Randy Pausch: "Alive and Healthy"

Randy Pausch is the Carnegie-Mellon professor whose "Last Lecture" got widespread media coverage last fall. (See Wikipedia for links to many articles, including the Last Lecture.) Last Friday (2/15/08) was a big day for him. From his Update page:

"Today is a pretty important day. It was August 15th, 2007, when I was told I likely had three to six months of good health left."

As I've said several times on my CaringBridge site, I like a lot about Randy's attitude: "I'm going to keep having fun every day I have left, no matter how many or how few of them I get." In the picture at left he's holding the 2/15/08 newspaper, as if he were a ransom hostage proving the date. :)

Actually, truth be told, I don't have the opinion that everyone should keep having fun every day they have left - my stand is that people (that's you) be fully alive, whatever form that takes for them. (My sister Suede sings a wonderful song about this, Roxanna Ward's "Remember Who You Are.") And for this Randy Pausch guy, who he is is Fun. In the Last Lecture, he said "I don't know how not to have fun. I mean, look at me - I'm dying and I'm still having fun." It's easy to see why he's been a gifted coach for Disney's Imagineering people.

Neither he nor I knew where we'd actually be at our "likely" drop dead date. We just did everything in our power, and meanwhile we just lived the hell out of every day.

When you're told you likely have six months to live, and that day comes, will you still be absolutely being who you are, every day? I request that you do.

p.s. You'll know you've really gotten the unbearable lightness of it all, when you can look at Randy's situation and grinningly wonder if it's all an elaborate ruse to get early retirement and get away with it. :)