The Last Lecture

Today, while running 11 miles in and around Petaluma with some good friends, we talked about life and death, pain and perserverance, parents and children.  And on the way home from Tiburon, listening to Sirius Radio and the Bruce Springsteen channel, they were talking about The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch, and it all came together.

Dave Ashe and I were leading the back of the pack, behind Kim and his brother Scott and we ended up talking about some health issues he was having, genetics, and parents passing away.  It made me think and talk about my own parents passing and ultimately life 30 or 40 years from now and relation to Everest, life and living, death and dying.

(Scott, Dave, Kim and Mitch in an earlier picture from the Skyline 50k)

The conversation we were having ultimately came back to whether we become who we are because of our parents or in spite of.  My theory is that these are the two areas that form who we are and what we are.  I like to think we take the best of our parents, bosses and leaders, friends and colleagues and it homulagates into our being.

Scott and Dave, who are two of the nicest men you will ever meet, were faced with the decision that many of us are, whether to put a parent into a home.  Since my parents were briefly in nursing homes before they died, I understood the difficult decision that children have to make and it is usually the oldest that has to communicate and implement.

His father had died in a home and before he could fully make his peace while his mother passed away immediately after a fun family gathering.  I know that we all think about how we want to go and increasingly, we have that choice.

Quality of life becomes more important than longevity.

I thought about the climber who died on the summit of Denali a few days before we summited and whose body was still there as we passed his wanded grave in the snow.  He had left two older grown sons and though he had just finished his 49th high point in the US out of 50 states and left some business unattended to, interviews with his sons gave respect and understanding to their dad’s quest.

I went to the Dodgers-Giants game on Friday night with Jeremy and we talked a little about this as I have with Nick.  They know that I have absolutely no death wish and I fully intend to be a burden to them in 2040 – but I’m not going to a home – (no Shady Pines sons!)

All of the preparations and focus before climbs is for one goal as Ed Viesturs points out, it is to come back alive with all digits intact.  The moon landing goal as set out by Kennedy included the phrase, “and returning him safely to this earth.”

The goal is to live life fully on this planet, live out our dreams and perservere through whatever life or the mountain has to throw at us.  The Last Lecture celebrates life and the pursuit of success, however one defines it to be.