“While They Live” (Across the Sundering Seas, #7)
First, thanks to all the readers who graciously informed me that that last link I shared was the text of David Foster Wallace’s Kenyon College 2005 Commencement address. Note to self: apparently my internet search abilities are very weak when I’m writing at 9pm.
David Foster Wallace is on the list of people I really need to read more of: I’ve read bits and bobs here and there, and I find him deeply interesting—as with the piece I shared last week, I often disagree deeply with his conclusions, but I find him worth reading nonetheless. I noted much the same of last year’s Technology and the Virtues, by Shannon Vallor (which I commend to you: it’s worth yoru time). I disagreed with her often; but she was careful and thorough and made me think. What more could you ask for from a good book?
For the rest of the note this week, I have something completely different for you.
I went skiing this past Friday with my dad. That would have been a pretty mundane event, except that in October 2017, he was diagnosed with a Stage 3 brain tumor (an oligodendroglioma if any of you happen to be familiar with tumor varieties for some reason). Over the intervening 17 months, he underwent invasive brain surgery, 6 weeks of combined chemo and radiation, and then a year of one-week-a-month of chemo.
Every time I do something like this with him, I’m reminded that—had things gone just a little differently—he might not have been here at all. That was true when I rode the Courage Classic with him last summer, and it was very true two days ago.
The point was brought home to me all the more intensely because another friend of mine, just a few years older than my dad, had a heart attack about a month ago. He had no signs of any heart issues and had all the right markers for a man in good health (cholesterol etc.). But had it happened when he had been skiing—just a few days earlier—he wouldn’t have made it back.
This life is short, and it is easy to forget in the midst of the bustle and hubbub of our lives. It is easy to forget that my daughters are growing up fast and to get caught on the next career checkbox or conference talk or… but in a decade and a half, they’ll both be adults on their own. And decades go fast (and faster).
I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God.
—Ecclesiastes 3:10–13
Live life well this week, readers, with that fast-approaching horizon in view. Eat, and drink, and find satisfaction in your work; that’s my own aim for the days ahead.
Back to the usual routine next week!