Death

I have been writing a bit of poetry lately, thinking I'll just add it to Speculativity, my little book of poetry at Lulu.com, when I have a new little body of it. Day before yesterday I put down something that had flown into my head whilst walking the dog. I am not depressed, by the way. I'm not contemplating anything, other than life: I am as hopeful and as positive in my feelings for my family, my friends, and myself as I have ever been, and anyone who knows me knows that I persist in being optimistic to a fault. But this poem grew legs along with my own as I stretched them alongside the clicking of MacGuyver's claws on the pavement in the silence of the winter afternoon. It's a short one so I'll share it here.

Last night I died.

Alone I walked up a steep road

I had never seen before,

All light behind, none ahead.

There were no gates,

Pearly or otherwise.

No one waited.

No angels sang.

I am dead.

Last night my older brother Ed called and told me that our brother Bill had been killed in a motorcycle accident. I have a lot to say about that, but I'll say it to my own conscience rather than air it publicly. I do encourage you to hold on to those who are dear to you and to show them as often as possible that you love them. That's what matters.

Bill was on the right in this picture, in the "Men Will Be Men" tee-shirt. My dear older brother Ed is in the middle:

Thanks Jeff Utecht and Shaun McElroy

Today friend Jeff Utecht twittered an announcement of a new blogpost at his U Tech Tips blog, actually posted by Shaun McElroy. Here's a bit of Shaun's post:

Dr. Randy Pausch, of the computer science world died this week of pancreatic cancer. He knew we was going to die and he was asked to give on last lecture. This was captured on YouTube. And later Randy expanded his ideas in a book, called The Last Lecture.

and here's a link to the U Tech Tips post with the 1 hour plus video. I'm watching it as I type this. Whatever you are doing, you should go watch and listen. Really...

Adding this later: Aaron E. Walsh, from mediagrid.org, sent out a brief notice to that international "Immersive Education" group which in part said,

Randy spearheaded the development of Alice, an educational 3D/VR programming environment that will soon become a key tool in the growing Immersive Education toolkit, which many of us recall from the Boston Digital Media Summit this past January (Luke Nagel gave a hands-on demonstration of Alice in the labs at the Summit). Although many in the 3D/VR community will remember Randy because of Alice, his last lecture and the message he carried following his diagnosis will surely be remembered by many more and far longer. Aaron
--
Aaron E. Walsh : MediaGrid.org

from an email dated 072608