I mentioned in passing on the blog that I had read Professor Pausch's book, The Last Lecture back in May. I found the book so engrossing that I forgot my umbrella on the train and wrote notes in the margins. :)
I am grateful for the chance that I had to learn from him through his writing. I tried flipping through my notes to find a favorite quote but there were so many. After talking to a couple of co-workers about our favorite parts we came up with 3 specific things we learned.
Claire's favorite(from page 146):
"My colleague told me: "It took a long time, but I've finally figured it out. When it comes to men who are romantically interested in you, it's really simple. Just ignore everything they say and only pay attention to what they do."Moira's favorite(from pages 69-70):
In my twenties and thirties I had no kids, and my sister's two children, chirs and laura became the objects of my affection......."In closing(from pages 205-206):
Once about a dozen years ago, when Chirs was seven years old and Laura was nine, I picked them up in my brand new Volkswagen Cabrio convertible. "Be careful in Uncle Randy's new car," my sister told them. "Wipe your feet before you get in it. Don't mess anything up. Don't get it dirty."
"I listened to her, and thought...."...Of course they'd eventually get my car dirty. Kids can't help it." So I made things easy. While my sister was outlining the rules, I slowly and deliberately opened a can of soda, turned it over, and poured it on the cloth seats in the back of the convertible. My message: People are more important then things. A car, even a pristine gem like my new convertible, was just a thing."
"So today's talk was about achieving childhood dreams," I said. "But did you figure out the head fake?"My heart and prayers go out to his family and close friends. Thank you for sharing him with us.
I paused. The room was quiet.
"It's not about how to achieve your dreams. It's about how to lead your life. If you lead your life the right way, the karma will take care of itself. The dreams will come to you."
3 comments:
His lecture was amazing. My husbands mother died of Pancreatic Cancer. It is a horrible deadly form of cancer. Virtually incurable by the time they find it. My thoughts and prayers are with his family.
That's a really nice tribute. I hadn't even heard of him before his death... I'm not sure why. So, I watched the Last Lecture on youtube Friday night. It was amazing. What a great guy he was.
It you enjoyed the lecture you will LOVE the book. It is even better then the original lecture as he goes into more detail. :)
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