While impending (shortly) death may be the greatest teacher
in valuing life, time, and experience, I don't think one need wait that long!
It is possible, after a fashion and perhaps almost as good as the teachings of
imminent
death, to really consciously choose to value life moment by moment, experience
by experience--living mostly in the now. (Buddhism may have something to say
about that).
I actually just got Randy’s book (and haven’t viewed the
lecture) and so haven’t read all of it. Although he may have a ‘simple’ view of
human nature, it’s usually the simple and the direct which often has the most
meaning when it comes to important things like how does one live?
It is also the simple and direct which works when faced with
tremendous stress (e.g. combat, self-defense in fighting for your life), not
eloquent, grandiose theories of action. This is, I think, paralleled in life.
Perhaps we are more simple than we give ourselves credit
for!
--Mike
--- On Mon, 7/28/08, Louis Schmier <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
From: Louis Schmier <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: RE: [tips] hypothetical: Elizabeth vs. Randy
To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)" <[email protected]>
Date: Monday, July 28, 2008, 5:47 AM
Michael,
why so apparently clinical. In your comparison between
“analysis” and “lecture,” are you denigrating the value
of a “lecture?” Why couldn’t Pausch’s
“lecture” be the result of an articulation of deep reflection, if
that’s a more acceptable term than meditation, and a willing to share?
Maybe you have to stare the Grim Reaper in its face to understand for his words
not to feel “touchy-feely.” They touched me, for I
understand. Having come literally within a hare’s breath of dying one
year ago this coming mid-September--and somehow having survived that massive
cerebral
hemorrahage unscathed—it does give you occasion to pause and reflect on
the meaning and purpose of your life and on life in general. For me, it
somehow makes every moment vivid, every happiness more luminous and
intense. It has developed a hunger that is also a form of joy. I
find that having walked through the valley of the shadow of death has
enlightened my life—and changed my toward life and death. Each day
I awake, I realize that what I choose to do with this one day is up to
me. So, I make a resolution to consciously greet this one and only day I
have with a resolving “yes,” that I will not live in the shadow of pessimism,
cynicism, anxiety, and fear, that I won’t let the gift of this one more
day pass as a blur and merely mark it off. Instead, I will live, love, laugh,
have fun, and enjoy to the fullest throughout this one more day given to me--as
it if were my last and as it almost was on that fateful September 15th—with
no guarantee of tomorrow. Now, if that be Pollyannaish, so be
it. Beats being down and jaded
Make it a good day.
--Louis--
Louis Schmier
http://therandomthoughts.edublogs.org/
Department of
History
http://www.newforums.com/Auth_L_Schmier.asp
Valdosta
State University
Valdosta ,
Georgia
31698
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