The Last Lecture; Randy Pausch and Jeffrey Zaslow, Hodder & Stoughton, £7.99.
The last lecture, “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams”, by Randy Pausch is intended for his children when, on growing up, they realised how much their father cared for them and loved them. Expanded into a book including ways to realise one’s dreams and living life to the hilt, it would give them a clear picture of their father when they were old enough to respond to such an inspiring lecture. The decision was to not tell the children of the fatal disease their father was suffering from. Let it wait till the end when the little ones would be able to comprehend the meaning of the death of their father. This was the unconditional decision taken by Randy Pausch.
If you were going to die, ‘what wisdom would you try to impart to the world knowing it was your last chance?’ The tradition at Carnegie Mallon is to invite their faculty to give an annual lecture in a series called ‘Journeys’ in which they speak of their views on life and what they feel is most important in their lives. But for Randy Pausch, Professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University, it was literally the last as he had been diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer and had only a few more months to live. The hypothetical question had turned into a real one for him.
Initial nervousness
He was edgy at first to appear before a learned audience and seemed to lack the confidence to give a lecture based on a real life situation. “There was a definite sense,” Pausch remarked in a recent interview before his death, “when I put that talk together, to use another football expression, you know, I wanted to leave it all on the field. . . . If I thought it was important, it’s in there. I played in football games where you walk off the field and the scoreboard didn’t end up the way you wanted. But you knew that you really did give it all. And the other team was too strong. Yeah, I’m not going to beat the cancer. I tried really hard … but sometimes you’re just not going to beat the thing…I wanted to walk off the stage and say anything I thought was important, I had my hour.” His courage and leadership are obvious in his world view.
Friends from around the world flew in to hear him. And what seemed to be a difficult task, turned into a vibrant and funny discourse on childhood memories and the desire to live life to its fullest while the going is good, a recipe of turning our dreams into reality. And this is what Pausch had to say about his three children: “I just hope that they have passion for things, and I’m sure they will. I’m sure their mother will instil that in them. And whatever they see of me in direct memories and indirect memories, uh, will send that signal. Because if they have passion for things, then I’m happy for whatever they have passion for.”
Many have begun to rediscover their lives and those who had given up hope or their love of a pastime have regained their lost passion after hearing the lecture. What was encouraging was the focus of his lecture on his many dreams and the invincibility of his spirit not to give up in the face of obstacles: “You may not agree with the list but I was there. … Being in zero gravity, playing in the National Football League, authoring an article in the World Book Encyclopedia -- I guess you can tell the nerds early. …. I wanted to be one of the guys who won the big stuffed animals in the amusement park.” Having almost failed to make it to Brown University, he persisted against what seemed to be a ‘brick wall’: “The brick walls are there for a reason,” he said during his lecture. “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.” It was with a similar perseverance that Pausch persisted in pursuing Jai Glasgow until she gave in to his marriage proposal. In the circumstances of the approaching calamity for wife and three children, he endeavoured every day to ensure that his family can bear the approaching loss with all its strength.
Such a positive attitude was conspicuous in his pioneering of the Entertainment Technology Centre and the Alice project (Alice is an innovative 3-D environment that teaches programming to young people through storytelling and interactive game-playing) at his university that began with a collaborative exercise by people from different disciplines coming together to create ‘virtual worlds’ as well as learn to work together honestly and with utmost respect for others’ ideas. It is now one of the most popular pursuits at the CMU with students unhesitatingly abiding in an environment of risk and innovation. Faced by a choice between the predictable or the uncertain, he asserts: “Go for the risk. It’s better to fail spectacularly then to pass along and do something which is mediocre.”
Unique experience
The lecture, which was hurriedly put together, has been rendered into a book where Pausch’s acumen and humour have combined to turn it into a concrete experience to be read by generations: “Putting words on paper, I’ve found, was a better way for me to share all the yearnings I have regarding my wife, children and other loved ones. I knew I couldn’t have gone into those subjects on stage without getting emotional.” Though the book is meant for his three children, millions now have read and heard the deeply moving and uplifting lecture around the world that has not only changed many lives, but has taught many to seize the day and live life to its fullest, especially for those who suffer from pancreatic cancer, medical research on which has made little headway in the past many years. To face the challenge, Pausch advises: ‘We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.’
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