Credo
"Sign on, young man, and sail with me. The stature of our homeland is no more than the measure of ourselves. Our job is to keep her free. Our will is to keep the torch of freedom burning for all. To this solemn purpose we call on the young, the brave, the strong, and the free. Heed my call, Come to the sea. Come Sail with me." -- John Paul Jones
"Pardon him, Theodotus; he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature" --George Bernard Shaw, "Caesar and Cleopatra"
"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."--Friedrich Nietzsche
"A kind Providence has placed in our breasts a hatred of the unjust and cruel, in order that we may preserve ourselves from cruelty and injustice. They who bear cruelty, are accomplices in it. The pretended gentleness which excludes that charitable rancour, produces an indifference which is half an approbation. They never will love where they ought to love, who do not hate where they ought to hate."--Edmund Burke
“You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours.”--General Sir Charles Napier
"Μολὼν λαβέ" -- Leonidas
"Blogito Ergo Sum" -- Neptunus Lex
Wow! Just wow.
Saw this on another site a few months ago, and it broke my heart. Why do we always lose the brightest and the best?
“I am not resigned.”
Marianne
Lex,
Thank you for linking to this lecture. I just finished viewing the full 60 minutes and will share it with my coworkers.
http://cmu.blip.tv/file/461472?filename=Carnegiemellon-RandyPauschReallyAchievingYourChildhoodDreams295.mov
A Man who knows what is important in life. He inspires me. Almost as much as the youngsters in Iraq and Afghanistan do. But he remains a Man nonetheless.
Subsunk
My advice: three words; never give up.
It’s amazing the way your outlook on life changes when facing something like Dr. Pausch is facing.
Jim C
I love his analogy on things. It is just stuff. That is something my parents have also drilled into my conscious. Things are things some people have bigger things some smaller but in the grand scheme of things we all die leaving them all behind. What matters most is getting up when we fall(or like Jim C said, “never give up”), making time for the ones we love and doing what is right no matter the consequence.
Thank you very, very much for sharing this. It’s important to be inspired, isn’t it!
It’s more fun to have fun, it is just stuff, “never give up… never, never give up” (Jimmy V), keep it real and stay humble. Words to live by
Thank you!
Finally got the bride to look at Lex’ site. No small feat. Nice job. Genuine gratitude……rare as hen’s teeth. Reminds me again of Fulton Sheen: “The tragedy of mens lives is not what they suffer; the tragedy of mens lives is what they miss.” And boy do we miss lots.
I like the part about living with integrity. In the Movie Thief, Willie Nelson’s character says to James Caan’s character, the thief, never to lie to anyone. “Lie to no one. If there ‘s somebody close to you, you’ll ruin it with a lie. If they’re a stranger, who the f*** are they you gotta lie to them?”
Facing death is not an easy thing, but it’s something we’re constantly doing. The daughter has now reached 5 months. While pacing the floor to get her to sleep, I calculated that we’ve passed the 1% mark of the time she will spend with us. 18 years / 4 quarters/year means we’re at 1/72 of the time before she heads to college or marriage or what-have-you, just over 1%.
My, has it been so long? Is our time so finite? Seems like I always thought there would be time to do those things I’ve wanted to do when I had some free time. Ride the motorcycle to Alaska, fly a jet, drive a formula 1 car, visit some distant cousins in the Old Country…
And now my daughter shows me just how fleeting our time on this planet is. Had I known I’d have not waited until I was nearly 40 to have her, though I must say requiring a partner did make that decision not solely my fault.
I drew two lessons from this.
1) Don’t Wait. We waited on having kids until we were debt-free and able to live on a single income. Looking back, it wouldn’t have been that great a sacrifice to have her earlier. There are billions of people having kids in poverty, and they survive. Maybe it’s better to have the kid or whatever other expense and give up a little comfort.
2) If you live a good life, are honest in your dealings and otherwise comport yourself such that you’ll have no regrets later, you’ll have no regrets. And ya know, being able to exit this mortal coil with the same good name you entered it is as good an exit strategy as there is.
I’ll leave behind a daughter and a wife, and when they speak my name they can say it with pride. And when they remember me they can find inspiration in how I behaved in front of them.
The man has it right — live your life well and the karma will follow you.
– Max
Max,
My wife hit me with a statistic several years ago, when my oldest son turned 9. She stated to me flatly after the birthday cake had been consumed, the presents opened, the packaging/wrappings tossed out, and the happy lad was off to bed: “That’s it, his time with us is half over, and we just ended the better half of that time.”
I never did do countdowns (save for the last night of a WESTPAC with the lights of OB, SD, and NI clearly in view), they always seemed counter-productive to the overall well being of my attitude, but – when she said that to me, it hit me like a ton of bricks.
Don’t do it brother, just enjoy the time you have, foster good attitudes with your kid, and she’ll spend her entire life with you… not just the 18 you’re counting.
I live by 2 sayings:
“Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much.” and
“We’re not here for a long time, we’re here for a good time.”
The first is known by most people. The 2nd is my family’s motto, borne from a tragedy that came far too close for comfort.
My dad died at 63, having just begun his plans for retirement with my mom. He was a small business owner – which meant he was all things to all people. He was a successful, self-made man who worked extremely hard to provide for his family. He took us on lovely trips as children; he and my mom did some traveling once we kids were out of the house. But they saved most of it for post-retirement – as many people do. Unfortunately, my dad didn’t live long enough to enjoy the final fruits of his life-long labors.
That’s when I adopted the first phrase above as my own personal life’s mantra. That and a line from a favorite old movie – Mame with Rosalind Russell. “You’ve got to live, live, live – life is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death.”
Indeed – belly up to the banquet everyone and feast.
If that’s the same talk I saw elsewhere earlier, there’s one thing the good professor said that didn’t go down well. The rest of it was outstanding, but I’m still pondering over: ‘If someone doesn’t respond to you the way you would like, just give it time, and eventually they will’ (or something like that, I’m paraphrasing from memory).
I don’t know about that perspective. There are some that are simply so far away or contrary in view to allow hope in waiting for a satisfying response.
As for what I would like to offer as advice, just this:
1. Be honest. Always.
2. Always give your best.
3. Do to others as you would have them do unto you.
Cordially, P-dub.
PW ~ I agree with you. There was one part of what he said that didn’t sit well with me. The part about no one being pure evil is something I disagree with from personal experience. However, his experiences may have been different and I do hope they were.
What an incredible speech. I believe I will save that to CD and have my kids watch it when they are a little older.
Thanks, sir. That was great.
Lee, I’m trying to do as you say, and I agree with your sentiments. But three score and ten are what we’re given, anything more is borrowed at the grace of The Creator. Now that I’ve hit 40, I have to start planning for the remaining 30 years I have, the rest being gravy.
And if she’s lucky, of those 30 years 10 of them will be with another man I’ve either approved of or whom I can persuade through threats, treachery, and outright lies to do as I think he should towards her. Hopefully, the latter methods will not be necessary.
– Max