Cancer Cancer Everywhere

I swear since I was diagnosed it seems like cancer is everywhere. Signed onto Eddie Bauer online to buy shoes last night and there are "pink ribbon" shoes - $2.00 for each sold to fight cancer! I open People magazine and there's a full page ad for a Fight Cancer TV show in September. In the local paper is an article about a Climb for the Cure event in Flagstaff in two weeks and the GC Association has a team - I signed up with a friend. And of course there are the famous people with cancer - Christina Applegate diagnosed with breast cancer just this week, Tony Snow dies of cancer not that long ago, one of our Olympic athletes diagnosed but waiting until after the games for treatment. But the one that hit me the hardest this past month was one I knew was coming. Randy Pausch died of pancreatic cancer on July 25th. He was a professor at Carnegie Mellon when he was diagnosed and given six months to live. I first heard about him this winter when a friend encouraged me to watch his "Last Lecture" on YouTube. When he gave the lecture he knew that he only had a few months left (he made it a bit longer) but he was so full of life and humor that you would never guess it. It's not that he doesn't mention it - he does. The lecture is about never giving up on your dreams, finding the best in others, and having fun. It's over an hour but I suggest that if you have a chance you should watch Randy's "Last Lecture". Or I heard there's a book out there too but it's watching him show off the stuffed animals he's won at carnivals and how he made each of his childhood dreams come true that's priceless. He was so full of life. He was 47.