Last Lecture

Yesterday, Big Time Bobby urged Your Charles to watch the terminally ill Randy Pausch give his 90 min "Last Lecture" on Youtube, billing it as a man celebrating his life's arc (now, sadly, like a curved walking cane) from childhood dreams to realizing those dreams to lessons learned along the way. The 47 year old Computer Science professor confoundingly appears in utmost health and is equally, confoundingly, upbeat - even joking about his death. But, he is very much frank about the platitudes that he has learned in his life, parsing them out of entertaining anecdotes about his career and family. These include:

1. Luck is when opportunity meets preparation

2. Listen to and absorb criticism. When a person sees you doing something bad and will tell you about it, they really love you. The person that just let's you slide is one to watch out for.

3. Brick walls [metaphorically] are there for the people who don't really want it. They are there for you to prove your want and determination.

4. Work hard.

5. There is good in all people. You may have to wait awhile, maybe even years, but people will surprise you...

There is a certain element of cheesiness to those life lessons. When I heard them all the first time, years ago, I probably rolled my eyes. If someone gave you a calligraphy-ed, sentimental birthday card with a lush but nondescript tree on the cover with those five things as the inscription, would you really think twice? However, the source, in this case, is the thing. When an eloquent, self-deprecating man whose accomplishments are no doubt impressive, with nothing to lose and three months to live, explains to a room of 500 people and a webcast audience that those platitudes are absolutely true, you have to agree with him.

Here's the thing: I know those lessons are true, but I'm also skeptical about them. There's an ironic sense inside me that regards those platitudes, overplayed like those ten songs always on the radio, as less than sincere and drained of their core meaning. "Work hard" is so general: what if I worked hard at becoming a complete ass? Is that "work hard"'s intentionality? No, but it takes the platitude at its word and direction and flips it around, which becomes somewhat funny. And therefore lessons its true meaning.

I could "listen to all my critics" but so often we are told to not listen to our critics. What if Copernicus listened to all his critics? Or MLK? Or the New York Giants? Granted, there is a fine line between listening to constructive criticism when you are learning a craft and listening to resistant criticism by insecure naysayers. But, the same "listen to your critics" platitude can be taken from each vantage point and argued easily for or against. It is not a one size fits all, and therefore it is devalued.

I could sunder the high ground of the other three listed lessons, but I think you get my point: each of us has an ironic, shrewd sense that delights in mocking or demeaning very general life lessons despite knowing that they are true. So where does this ironic sense come from?

Well, there's now television shows that make fun of television, which are extremely popular. SportsCenter is all irreverence and irony. Politicos answer everything cryptically or even use the above platitudes as shields for the real truth. News is sensationalized for entertainment and easy morality. Even fake news like the Daily Show has now supplanted real news as the go-to for "what is really going on in this country." But really, Jon Stewart and Colbert use irony to expose irony, which exposes falshoods, but doesn't unearth any definitive truth.

Rarely in pop culture, which we are all drenched in, is there an unironic sense or truth or what is real. Everything is double entendres and vilification - the Republicans vs. the Democrats, the gov't vs. the people, television vs. itself. Everything is so muddled and self-referential that irony pervades most everything.

So as the truth is continually obfuscated within the layers of irony, and irony becomes the only way we can relate to ourselves and each other, where do the life lessons of Mr. Randy Paush reside? Do we just dismiss them because we can equivocate them and find paradoxes within them so easily? But we know they are true, deep down, even if they have been watered down from overuse or misuse. And coming from a man of such astonishing courage and intellect as Prof. Pausch, who is passionately coming to terms with the truths of his life, maybe it is time to shed our ironic tendencies and return to the root values we know exist somewhere beneath the cool detachment.