"Get To Work On The Nets"

It had been a while since I watched the video of Randy Pausch's The Last Lecture http://tinyurl.com/ybnhnfc but I did so this evening. For those who haven't seen it, it will move you and, perhaps, change your life. In a nutshell, Randy Pausch, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University had been given six months to live due to his pancreatic cancer. So this well-respected professor, loving husband and father of three children delivered what he knew was going to be his last lecture. What I found in it was mostly not what I thought I would find in it...it was better. In a July 25, 2008 online article published by ABC's Good Morning America announcing Randy's death http://tinyurl.com/33rmej2 he is quoted as saying, "I mean, the metaphor I've used is ... somebody's going to push my family off a cliff pretty soon, and I won't be there to catch them. And that breaks my heart. But I have some time to sew some nets to cushion the fall. So, I can curl up in a ball and cry, or I can get to work on the nets." Wow!

In a way, Randy was given a precious gift...the gift of knowing his days on earth were going to be over soon. It's a gift because he got to say goodbye in a way that he chose. Not many of us will be given that gift, that ability to plan for our goodbyes; our delivery of our lessons to be left behind; our own Last Lecture. Because of that, I recommend we all begin today to "... get to work on the nets." I know I will.

Thank you, Randy. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some net weaving to do.