RANDY PAUSCH HAS DIED

Randy Pausch has died of complications from pancreatic cancer. He was the young professor (age 47) from Carnegie Mellon University who was known for his “Last Lecture” which was released on video and later turned into a best-selling book. He has given us a great gift, in our death-defying culture, by bringing our attention to the fact that death is a part of everyone’s life. He taught us, by his example, that because life doesn’t go on forever we should live each day to the fullest…as if it was the only one we had. In his dying, he taught the rest of us so much about living! He may no longer be with us, but his contributions to our understanding of life and death, will endure. I am very grateful I stumbled upon his video, and I highly recommend it.

AGING GRACEFULLY

Many baby-boomers like myself are realizing we are no longer young; even if we’d like to believe that “60” is the new “40”. And because so many of us are caring for our elderly parents who are nearing the end of their lives, death is right in our face. But the truth is, death is everyone’s companion in this life. It is appropriate when we are young to put our attention on surviving and learning to live in the world. But as we get older, living well involves not dwelling on the fact that death is part of our life experience, but being willing to face that fact and then move on. As with any unpleasant thought, the more we avoid it, the scarier it becomes and the less we are able to escape its influence; because avoiding it drives much of what we do. When we no longer engage in the flight a new fund of energy becomes available. Without having to live on the edge of fear hoping that we won’t encounter either thoughts about death or the fact of its presence, we can turn more completely toward the business of living. The hopefulness I felt about living life deeply, about fulfilling my dreams, about accomplishing my purpose for being here on earth – all of those positive feelings spiked when I disengaged from the grip in which the fear had held me. This can happen to you, too.

ACCEPTANCE = FREEDOM

I’m hearing from a number of people how have read the book and who are not dealing with life/death situations, but who are interested in contemplating the end of life. Its very gratifying to know that Shining Moments is generating a kind of “awakening” in some.

Acceptance of death doesn’t mean dwelling on it. The idea of being preoccupied with one’s death is morbid. But to not acknowledge that it is a step along the continuum of our own life puts limitations on our ability to expand into the possibilities life holds for us. If we are always afraid to peek around the next corner for fear of what we’ll find, then there are many surprises that we’ll never uncover. If we spend our lives trying to avoid the fear of death that is stalking us, our pattern becomes “avoidance”, and the limitation we struggle against, are mostly ones we have placed on ourselves. We hold ourselves back more than anyone else, if we don’t allow ourselves to face our fears.