I presume that most of you have some familiarity with Randy Pausch, the Carnegie Mellon University computer science professor who passed away from pancreatic cancer in July, 2008. Pausch learned of his cancer in September 2006 and by August 2007 was infromed by his doctors that his prognosis was that he had “3 to 6 months of good health left.” Randy’s response was not to “go gentle into that good, good night.” Instead, he sat down and began composing what has now become renown as The Last Lecture.
Pausch delivered his “Last Lecture”, initially titled “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams”, at Carnegie Mellon University on September 18, 2007. The talk was modeled after an ongoing series of lectures where top academics were asked to think deeply about what matters to them, and then give a hypothetical “final talk”, with a topic such as “what wisdom would you try to impart to the world if you knew it was your last chance?” Before speaking, Pausch received a long standing ovation from a large crowd of over 400 colleagues and students. When he motioned them to sit down, saying, “Make me earn it”, someone in the audience shouted back, “You did!”
During the lecture, Pausch offered inspirational life lessons, and performed push-ups on stage. He also commented on the irony that the “Last Lecture” series had recently been renamed as “Journeys”, saying, “I thought, damn, I finally nailed the venue and they renamed it.”
The Disney-owned publisher Hyperion paid $6.7 million for the rights to publish a book about Pausch called The Last Lecture, co-authored by Pausch and Wall Street Journal reporter Jeffrey Zaslow. The book became a New York Times best-seller on April 28, 2008. The Last Lecture expanded on Pausch’s speech. The book’s first printing had 400,000 copies, and it has been translated into 46 languages. It has spent more than 85 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, and there are now more than 4.5 million copies in print in the U.S. alone.
On his personal Carnegie Mellon website, Pausch wrote the following passage in response to the popularity of the You-tube version of his lecture: “I am flattered and embarrassed by all the recent attention to my “Last Lecture.” I am told that, including abridged versions, over six million people have viewed the lecture online. The lecture really was for my kids, but if others are finding value in it, that is wonderful. But rest assured; I’m hardly unique. Send your kids to Carnegie Mellon and the other professors here will teach them valuable life lessons long after I’m gone.”
I read his book and, among the many passages I highlighted, this one is one of my favorite and the basis for this week’s Inspiration:
“The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They’re there to stop the other people.”
All of us face day-to-day challenges in our lives and all of us, like Randy, will someday have to confront our own mortality. Any prayer to be sheltered from either is, in my view, pointless. What we should pray for is the courage and tenacity to wrench from every “brick wall” we face the splendid victories that can lay just on the other side.
As the poet/author, Robert Service, so aptly composed—in all our endeavors—we must Carry On!
It’s easy to fight when everything’s right,
And you’re mad with the thrill and the glory;
It’s easy to cheer when victory’s near,
And wallow in fields that are gory.
It’s a different song when everything’s wrong,
When you’re feeling infernally mortal;
When it’s ten against one, and hope there is none,
Buck up, little soldier, and chortle:
Carry On! Carry On!
There isn’t much punch in your blow.
You’re glaring and staring and hitting out blind;
You’re muddy and bloody, but never you mind.
Carry on, my son, Carry on!
And so in the strife of the battle of life
It’s easy to fight when you’re winning;
It’s easy to slave, and starve and be brave,
When the dawn of success is beginning.
But the man who can meet despair and defeat
With a cheer, there’s the man of God’s choosing;
The man who can fight to Heaven’s own height
Is the man who can fight when he’s losing.
Carry on! Carry on!
Things never were looming so bleak.
But show that you haven’t a cowardly streak,
And though you’re unlucky you never are weak.
Carry on! Carry on!
Brace up for another attack.
It’s looking like hell, but—you never can tell:
Carry on, old man! Carry on!
There are some who drift out in the deserts of doubt,
And some who in brutishness wallow;
There are others, I know, who in piety go
Because of a Heaven to follow.
But to labor with zest, and to give of your best,
For the sweetness and joy of the giving;
To help folks along with a hand and a song;
Why, there’s the real sunshine of living.
Carry on! Carry on!
Fight the good fight and true;
Believe in your mission, greet life with a cheer;
There’s big work to do, and that’s why you are here.
Carry on! Carry on!
Let the world be better for you;
And at last when you die, let this be your cry”
Carry on, my soul! Carry on!
Have an AWE-full weekend!
William J. “Bill” Bacqué