The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch

You may remember that I did a blog on Tuesdays with Morrie a while back. This past week I got a chance to read another book along the same lines, The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch with Jeffrey Zaslow.

If you’ve not heard of Randy and his famous last lecture at Carnegie Mellon, you can find it on the links from The Last Lecture website.

Randy delivered the live version of The Last Lecture a month after getting final confirmation that he had only 6 months of good health left before his life would finally be consumed by the pancreatic cancer that was eating away at his body. I would have been tempted to pull the covers over my head, not address an audience of 400 people, but that’s exactly what Randy decided he needed to do.

The resulting lecture “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams” had very little to do with cancer and death; rather it had a lot to do with how to live your life. It’s an interesting exercise in assessing whether the things you say matter the most, really do matter to you. It’s a hard lesson, but The Last Lecture gives you a chance to see if you are living with integrity. Meaning: are you living a life that is true to who you are and where you want to be. It’s a very stark reminder that you can only look forward to so many “tomorrows” no matter who you are.

This book does differ from Tuesdays with Morrie, in that Morrie was an older gentlemen, Randy was relatively young. Their insights and motives for having the books published are a little different, too. But the basic messages remain looking into the best ways to live your life from a perspective of one whose course on earth is almost over. Morrie addresses this through the need to find and cultivate love. Randy does this through finding and cultivating your dreams.

There were times when Randy was a little hard to relate to—He’s done a lot of amazing things in his short life time and I’m just a wimpy little housewife. I sometimes found myself with the impression that Randy had already packed so much living into his days that it really was okay for him to leave, despite the fact that he had three young children and a beautiful wife. If I died tomorrow I think my eulogy would be far different from Randy’s. Probably something about only burning dinner 1 out of 6 times. (Never mind I only cook dinner a couple of times a week.)

I’ve only achieved two of my childhood dreams but they definitely didn’t turn out the way I dreamed them. I became a published author, but sadly I publish in a genre that is only of use to maybe 1 in 25 members of a small subculture and probably only ever read by 1 in 100 of those who might appreciate it. I’m published, but I’m a very small fish. I also always wanted to be a mother. But my children have yet to rise up and call me blessed. My teenager did tell me I was wonderful the other day, but I suspect that was because she wanted me to go to the store to buy her a bottle of shampoo.

Randy, on the other hand, had great personal achievements and public contributions. Every one of them was based on an enthusiasm for what he was doing. I found myself feeling very inadequate at times; though I’m sure that wasn’t the message Randy wanted the reader to take away from his book.

Awesome achievements aside, I most appreciated his overall messages, like: people are more important than things. That was something I could certainly hang on to and pay a little more attention to as I’m being unappreciated in my own mediocrity. The Last Lecture is certainly a worthwhile read. If you’re looking for a quick but poignant read for a Sunday afternoon of reflection, The Last Lecture would certainly fit the bill.

Sadly, Randy lost his battle to pancreatic cancer on July 25th, 2008,

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Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom

I just made a new friend. Well, okay, I’ve never really met him, nor will I be able to anytime soon. I value his friendship just the same. Morrie is the kind of best friend everyone should have. Yep. I finally got around to spending my Tuesdays with Morrie.

Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lesson by Mitch Albom was a national best-seller several years ago, but like most things popular in the national market, I eyed it with suspicion and stuck to my already lengthy list of books to read. I’m sure if I would have paid closer attention to what the “critics” were saying about Tuesdays with Morrie, I might have actually read it then; but, I’ve tried a few of those so called inspiring titles and found many of their messages significantly lacking in inspiration or even good writing in some cases.

What changed? Well, let’s call it audio book deprivation. See, my addiction to books is both rampant and well defined. I simply must have books available to me no matter where I am or what I’m doing. This means driving, exercising, doing (ugggh) house work, relaxing, you name it. Some of these times are very dangerous to bring an actual book into; in fact it may actually be illegal in some states. So, I use audio books. Now, some people don’t like audio books and I will admit that there have been a few that I simply haven’t been able to stand the voice of the narrator or their interpretation of the story. However, on the whole I can add a few more books a week by being able to listen when my hands and eyes are otherwise occupied.

I discovered audio books when my first two children became old enough to argue over who got to choose the radio station in the car. Viola! No more arguments. Well, maybe a few times when they didn’t want to get back out of the car before the chapter was over but that’s another issue. I found listening kept my mind occupied enough to keep it off of other unpleasantries as well. It’s been good for me and I love it.

Now back to my Morrie story.

I was suffering audio book withdrawal, and needed to make a trip to the library. Enter the problem. The library I had to visit that particular day makes no distinction in what reading group an audio book is most appropriate for. You have to go through title by title to find things or know exactly what you want to pick it out immediately. I had a whole afternoon, so I browsed. Enter Morrie. I shrugged and put him in my library bag figuring it couldn’t hurt. I had no idea how uplifting it could be.

No, the messages aren’t that unique, but their presentation is very effective. This is an account of actual events passing between a dying man and his one-time student. It’s very interesting to hear the perspectives of life given by a man who knows his days are limited. It is not death he fears, but rather passing on without helping others understand that if you’ve lived a good life there’s really nothing to fear.

What matters in life? Like many of us suspect, it has very little to do with what the world tells us matters. In Morrie’s opinion it all boils down to love. I’ll let him explain it more, but Morrie and Mitch discuss every aspect of life: health, love, children, dying, work, money, you name it. His insights are the gentle whisperings are familiar, but they feel like they’re coming from a beloved friend or wise grandparent sitting across from us, patting our hand and saying, “It’s all right. You can stretch beyond the world’s opinions and be who you really want to be.”

I would highly recommend spending a few days with Morrie yourself. Yes, you’ll have to censor his language on approximately three occasions, but it is very forgivable. In fact, I recommend getting your hands on the audio if you can. Even if you’re not an audio book person, there is an extra treat at the end. After listening to Morrie’s story read by Mitch Albom, you get to hear portions of the actual recorded conversations between the two men. Hearing those sweet words of wisdom from Morrie’s own lips was my favorite part of the book. In this case, the hype was well deserved in my humble opinion. Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom is definitely worth the read, or if you can, the listen.

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