Stanford Convergence

A few things happened today… that converged on Stanford. 

A good friend nearly died 10 years ago — in a plane crash. And today, he reminisced about the near-death experience described in his blog (link below).  

In that post, he quoted Steve Jobs’ famous commencement speech given at Stanford in 2005… 

( excerpt ) "Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.”

Sobering thoughts… because today, I find myself here where that very speech was given… meeting a friend who’s at the Stanford Cancer Centre to seek radiation treatment for a very rare form of cancer (stage 4). 

And so — having a buddy who was given a second chance at life, being with a friend who’s fighting for his life right now, and remembering a remarkable man’s view of life and death — I am reminded by Steve Jobs  — “avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart."

https://micoolcho.blogspot.com/2012/07/my-near-death-experience.html

( update )

One of the (many) things I want to stop putting off — is writing.

I’ve always enjoyed writing but thought it took “too much time away from work” (that’s what I tell myself), and I never got around to setting up a space to consolidate all the different topics I write about.

And so — today I’m going to write again… and just place it here on Substack. I’ll get organized along the way.

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