« Art and the Bible/L'art et la bible | HomePage | The Prophetess Deborah/La prophétesse Deborah »

Thursday, 27 September 2007

Randy Pausch: The Lecture of a Lifetime/Le cours magistrale de sa vie

0d8d199c7e7a9da415c82c29f45d4fa0.jpg

Randy Pausch
______________________________________________________________________________________________

Randy Pausch is a remarkable 49-year-old Carnegie-Mellon University professor who has three to six months to live. As he says in this lecture, the cancer specialists informed him of that a month ago, so you can do the math. In this final lecture before an audience of 500, he talks about the achievement of childhood dreams, how to help others achieve them, and about the art of having fun right up to the last possible moment of life. This will speak in particular to followers of Julia Cameron's Artist's Way (http://www.theartistsway.com/).

For those who could care less about The Artist's Way, no problem, what this droll, brilliant, generous, enthusiastic man has to say about life is important. And fun.

Though he achieved most of his childhood dreams, Pausch flashes his rejection letters on a screen and talks about career setbacks: "Brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls aren't there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to show us how badly we want things."

Click on the link below to go the ABC News article on this Person of the Week, and the complete video in four parts of his lecture.

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/PersonOfWeek/story?id=3633945
Randy Pausch est un professeur remarquable de 49 ans à la faculté de l'Université de Carnegie-Mellon. Il a entre trois à six mois qui lui reste de sa vie, et comme il dit lui-même pendant ce cours magistrale, les spécialistes de cancer lui ont donné ces nouvelles il y a un mois, donc vous pouvez faire les calculs. Dans cette conférence devant 500 personnes, il parle de la réalisation des ses rêves d'enfance, comment aider les autres à les réaliser, et l'art de s'amuser jusqu'àu dernier moment possible de la vie. Ceci parlera en particulier à ceux qui suivent le Chemin de l'Artiste de Julia Cameron(http://www.theartistsway.com/).

Pour ceux qui s'en fichent du Chemin de l'Artiste, pas de problème, ce que cet homme drôle, brilliant, généreux et enthousiaste a à dire sur la vie est important. Et amusant.

Même s'il a réalisé la plupart de ses rêves d'enfance, Pausch montre de lettres de refus sur un écran pour les spectateurs et il parle des obstacles dans son parcours: "Les murs en brique sont là pour une raison. Les murs ne sont pas là pour nous empêcher d'y entrer. Ils sont là pour nous montrer combien on veut réèllement la chose qu'on désire."

Cliquer sur le lien ci-dessous pour aller à l'article ABC News concernant cette Personalité de la Semaine, et la vidéo complète en quatre parties de son cours magistrale.


http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/PersonOfWeek/story?id=3633945

Comments

ABC News World News with Charles Gibson has this "Person of the Week" feature on Fridays, and he was the Person last week. I saw just that relatively short piece and I was quite touched. As I noted on my blog, I wonder if I would be so gracious?

Posted by: Roger Green | Thursday, 27 September 2007

I'm running a week behind here in Europe - I'll try blaming it on the time zones.

I agree with your blog's comment, I don't know if I would be able to handle what he is handling with as much - strangely - joy in life as he does...on the other hand, I don't know if I could fill an auditorium with 500 people whose lives I have touched for the better...guess that gives us a goal to shoot for...

Posted by: Deborah | Friday, 28 September 2007

I had seen this on another site and was, like surely 99.9% of the viewers, profoundly touched.
I wonder why this is so - what he said is, upon close examination, not much different that what many others have said before. And yet we are all moved - is it because we feel we must listen more closely to a person near to dying ? because we feel sorry for him ? Or because we feel intuitively that those closest to death are the ones most likely to tell the truth ?
Interestingly enough in American law there is a rule of evidence called the Dying Declaration - if someone knowing they are about to die says something, it will be admitted in evidence as an exception to the hearsay rule - never mind about the technicalities - the point is that we all feel that imminent death is a great truth producer - whether from fear of brimstone or feeling of precious little time or desire to do the right thing.
And I think that this man, like others I would imagine in a similar situation, does indeed focus on what he considers as the most important and the most true. And he probably says it better than those of us who think we are going to live forever.
Thanks for the posting.

Posted by: Mallard | Friday, 28 September 2007

The comments are closed.