關於愛，我是個小學生。

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hd_ptbiPoXM&feature=related

My third story is about death. When I was 17, I read a quote on something that was written like: ‘If you live each day as if it was the last, some day you’ll certainly be right.’ It made an impression on me. Since then, for the past thirty-three years, I look in the mirror and ask myself: ‘If it were the last day in my life, would I want to do what I would like to do today?’ And whenever the answer has been ‘No’ for too many days in a role, I know I need to change. Remembering I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered that helped me make big choices in my life. Because almost everything, all external expectations, pride, fears, embarrassment, or failure, all fall away in the face of death. We’ve been only what are truly important. Remembering that you’re going to die is the best way I know to avoid traps of thinking that you have something to lose. You’re already naked. There’s no reason not to follow your heart. About a year ago, I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn’t even know what a pancreas was! The doctors told me that this was certainly type of cancer that was incurable, and I should be expected to live no longer than 3 to 6 months. My doctor advised me to go home and ‘give my fears in order’, which is a doctor’s code for ‘prepare to die’. It means to try to tell your kids about everything. You thought you’d have the next ten years later to tell them --- in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is ‘buttoned up’, so it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say you’re the boss. I lived with the diagnoses all day. Later that evening, I had a biopsy, where they stock an endoscope into my throat, through my stomach, and into my intestines, put a needle in my pancreas, and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells from the microscope, the doctors started crimes because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had that surgery, and thankfully I am fine now. This was the closest I’ve been facing the death. And I hope this is the closest I’ll get for a few more decades. Having living through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty that death is useful but a purely intellectual concept. No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to Heaven don’t want to die and get there. And yet death is the destination we’ll all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be because death is very likely the single best invention of life. Life changes aged. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now, the new is you! But some day, not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true! Your time is limited, so don’t waste time living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma which is living with results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise that drown your opinions and most importantly, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary! When I was young, there’s an amazing publication called ‘Whole Earth Catalogue’, which is one of the ‘Bibles’ of my generations. It was created by somewhere not far from here in Mellow Park, and it brought us life with poetic touch. This was in the late sixties before personal computers and desk-tops publishing, so they were all made with scissors, typewriters, and Polaroid cameras. It was sort of Google in the paperback form 35 years ago before Google came along. It was idealistic, overflowing with neat tools, and great notions. The think tank put out certain issues on Whole Earth Catalogue, and then, when it had run its course, they put out the final issue. It was late seventies, and I was your age. On the back cover of the final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might be so hitch-hiking on if you are adventurous. Beneath it were the words: ‘Stay hungry; stay foolish.’ It was their farewell message as it signed off. And I’ve always wished that for myself. And now as you graduate to begin new, I wish that for you.

STAY HUNGRY; STAY FOOLISH.

Thank you all very much. (End of the speech)