[Stovegeothnon]

I am not sure if this thread is relevant to this thread or not, so I will apologize to the moderators upfront.

As I get older, I find myself reflecting more and more life and priorities. To that end, the following two articles, touched me to the point of tears. I hope you enjoy them.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/11/sp...l?ref=football


May 11, 2008
CHEERING SECTION
Dying of Cancer, but Full of Life Lessons

By VINCENT M. MALLOZZI
Pittsburgh wide receiver Hines Ward arrived for this month’s Steelers minicamp with two books tucked in his duffel bag: the team’s playbook and a copy of “The Last Lecture,” co-written by Randy Pausch, who left his job as a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University last September.

“Randy is an inspiration,” Ward said by telephone last week. “He told me he’s one of my biggest fans, and I told him that I’m one of his.”

In September 2006, Pausch learned he had pancreatic cancer, a disease that is usually fatal within months of diagnosis. A year later, he used 76 minutes of borrowed time to talk to 400 spectators in Pittsburgh about the joys of living and reaching goals.

The lecture, which Pausch titled “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams,” became an Internet phenomenon, with millions viewing it on YouTube. It was also the basis for the best-selling book, written with Jeffrey Zaslow, a columnist for The Wall Street Journal.

“I know the book is doing really well, but the only three copies that really mean anything to me are the ones that went to my children,” Pausch, 47, said in a telephone interview last week from his home in Chesapeake, Va. “The rest is all gravy.”

In the book, Pausch writes about his childhood fantasies. He grew up in Columbia, Md., wishing he could be Captain Kirk, experience the thrill of floating in zero gravity and play in the N.F.L.

A month after his last lecture, the Steelers made a little piece of Pausch’s N.F.L. dream come true, inviting him to a practice. Pausch showed up wearing Ward’s No. 86 jersey and huddled with Ward, quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, safety Troy Polamalu and Coach Mike Tomlin.

“I promised them that if they got to the Super Bowl, I’d be around to see it,” Pausch said with a chuckle. “Well, at least I kept my end of the bargain.”

At practice, Pausch raced onto the field and began running pass routes, often diving for balls tossed by Ward.

“It was fantastic beyond my wildest dreams,” Pausch said.

Under the tutelage of kicker Jeff Reed, Pausch made a field goal on his only attempt, a 20-yarder that created a buzz on the field.

“Randy was having so much fun, he was actually teaching us a lesson that day,” Ward said. “He reminded us that we should never take anything for granted because nothing is promised to us, and that we should enjoy every moment of our lives, on and off the football field.”

Two weeks ago, Pausch thanked Ward by sending him an autographed copy of “The Last Lecture.” On May 2, at the start of a three-day minicamp, Ward called Pausch.

“He was on my mind, and I just wanted to see how he was doing,” Ward said. “It’s kind of difficult talking to a man you know is going to die, but with Randy, he’s always so positive, he never seems to get down. He has a truly amazing spirit. Here’s a man who knows his time on earth is short, and yet he has written a book that has given me and so many others a greater appreciation for life. It takes a courageous human being to do something like that.”

During their 15-minute conversation, Pausch gave Ward his version of the last pep talk.

“I told Hines that I wasn’t so sure I‘d be around for another Super Bowl,” said Pausch, who has developed congestive heart failure and kidney failure in the last two months. “I told him to keep playing hard and to step up and be a mentor to the younger guys on the team. I told him that it’s important to lead, and live, by example.”

Ward said that for the rest of his career and beyond, he would hold on tight to a line from Pausch’s book: “We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.”

Pausch said he was trying to play out his hand “with the dignity of an athlete at the end of a great career.”

“There are times at the end of games when you look up at the scoreboard and do not like what you see, and this is one of those times,” he added. “I’m hanging in there, trying to spend as much quality time with my wife and kids as possible, and though it’s very frustrating to know I won’t beat the cancer, there’s a great satisfaction in knowing that I’m walking off the field with no regrets. There’s nothing about my life that I would have changed.”

E-mail: cheers@nytimes.com


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