Thank You, Randy

I am reading The Last Lecture, and it has had an instant impact on the way I see the world, which was, I believe, one of Pausch's intents upon writing it. I don't think it was meant to be life-altering, except maybe for his family (pictured below), but I think he knew he had a very unique perspective on life, and wished to impart some of the wisdom brought on by facing death to those with more of a future in which to use it. For this, I thank him.


People are more important than things. At first, this seems like such an obvious statement, but how often do we treat our things better than we treat the people around us, or get angry at an important person because they have harmed one of our things? Pausch talks about this, and about how messes and mistakes provide some of life's greatest experiences, whether fun or educational. I have ruminated on this quite a bit, and the more I do the more profoundly important it becomes.

Today I was getting ready to do some ironing upstairs but had to run downstairs for a moment and left Layla coloring on the floor. When I was coming back up I heard lots of papers rustling, and as I rounded the corner I saw Layla pulling hundreds of pages out of one of my old school binders. As soon as she saw me she gasped a little and said, "Sorry Mommy, I'm making a mess." My first instinct was to scold her and immediately pick everything up, but the words of Randy Pausch ran through my mind, and it dawned on me that my daughter might enjoy playing with 500 pieces of loose paper, and it wouldn't be much harder to pick it up when she was done. So, I said, "That's okay honey, you can play with that."




She looked at me quizzically, then immediately grabbed a handful and threw it up in the air and said, "Like that?". "Sure," I said, and threw up my own pile just to let her know I was serious.


She played with that paper for over an hour. Throwing it, swimming in it, putting her dolls to bed in it, and using it to make a "water slide" down the stairs. Every so often she'd say, "Mom, this paper is so fun. Thank you for letting me play with it." I finished all of my ironing and had time to answer a few emails before it was time to clean up and have lunch. Over an hour of glorious fun, and it took less than two minutes to get rid of the mess. For the rest of the day I have thought about how I almost missed that opportunity to let my daughter play uninhibited because I was scared of a little mess.


I'll finish The Last Lecture tonight or tomorrow, and then I'll read it again and take notes to keep somewhere where I'll see them often. I don't think I'll change dramatically, and maybe no one but myself will even notice, but increased perspective has a way of creeping into your life and making subtle improvements that can add up over time.