musings.....

I went to grad school. Ergo, I know what lectures are like. The phdcomic fan in me would already conjure images of bingo and writing poetry, playing tic tac toe or a combination of all three during a professor's lecture.

But what is remarkable about the last lecture, is its simplicity. Honest , straight from the heart. No academic gibberish. No euphemisms, just straight talk. From a man who is (was)dying. I will admit though, that the publicity was cloying. It transformed the legacy of a great man to near-Britney like celebrity hype.

I don't know what it was about today. Maybe the stress of the past few days. Maybe an emotional high thanks to a birthday with loved ones. The realisation that somehow a quarter century passed by. Will there be a witness ? Does it go unnoticed? Maybe it was Ranjani and Gayathri singing "Rangapura Vihara." Just close your eyes and I promise you can experience that light, subtle shringara rasa sweeping you off your feet. If you have another level , that is. But I digress. It was just a reflective mood and I was reading this.

The book, the letter from the President, the Pittsburg day, the scuba diving, the lobbying, the elephant in the room. And then the post about Dylan turning six. A photo in the local photobooth done as pastel painting.

It moved me to tears. Human fraility. How we all, at some level, prepare ourselves for the inevitable. How it still hits hard when it happens. How we all live with the pain, how we move on.

And how family is the most important thing in everyone's life. How a dying man can teach us priorities.

Randy Pausch, RIP.