Posted on 09/20/2007 4:07:51 PM PDT by FormerACLUmember
Randy Pausch set the tone early on yesterday at his farewell lecture at Carnegie Mellon University. "If I don't seem as depressed or morose as I should be, sorry to disappoint you," said Dr. Pausch, a 46-year-old computer science professor who has incurable pancreatic cancer.
It's not that he's in denial about the fact that he only has months to live, he told the 400 listeners packed into McConomy Auditorium on the campus, and the hundreds more listening to a live Web cast. It's more that "I am in phenomenally good health right now; it's the greatest cognitive dissonance you will ever see -- the fact is, I'm in better shape than most of you," he said. And then, to the appreciative laughs and applause of his audience, Dr. Pausch dropped to the stage floor and did a set of pushups. "So anyone who wants to cry or pity me can come down here and do a few of those, and then you may pity me," he said.
"What we're not going to talk about today," he continued, "is cancer, because I've spent a lot of time talking about that ... and we're not going to talk about things that are even more important, like my wife and [three preschool] kids, because I'm good, but I'm not good enough to talk about that without tearing up." What he was there to discuss was how to fulfill your childhood dreams, and the lessons he had learned on his life's journey.
(Excerpt) Read more at post-gazette.com ...
No question where he is going. My prayers are with him and his family.
Darn fuzzy monitor.
The article gives no indication of his eternal destination, or his relationship with the Eternal One.
The secular religion believes, I've observed, in one of two possibilities: (1) there is nothing after this existence and consequently one is going nowhere, or (2) one earns/merits "heaven" through his or her good works.
False alarm and my children are well taken care of, but the Grand Kids need the corrupting influence of me.
Me too, and his courage!
Oh he!!...I disagree with him. It is unfair as people like Bin Ladin still be sucking air after this good man is gone.
God Bless him. I’m sure our #2 son must know him personally, or at least know of him, because he is a 2004 Comp. Sci. graduate of CMU. I’ll have to ask him about this. In fact, I’ll send him the link to this thread.
Good news, LB! May you have many long years to corrupt those Grands!
Nasty disease. My father-in-law passed due to it.
What’s to cry about?
I see a man who made a decision to work within the bounds of truth, to face his fate as it can be known and to say all the things, that coming from another’s mouth would come off maudlin or plain sappy.
bump
(My brother is having much better luck, with no detectable cancer.)
My second Grand Daughter is going to be a heart breaker, her Alabama Ridge Runner blood and my genetics, hopefully my politics, I hope she doesn't go prevert on me like her cousin Max Sandlin.
My mother was diagnosed a year ago this month with pancreatic cancer and died last December. What a nasty cancer this is as there is no cure. I don’t know the money facts, but I sure wish as much money as is put into AIDS research and treatment, would go into pancreatic cancer research. This is an equal opportunity cancer.
Will you fill us in after you speak to son #2? Thanks.
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