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发表于 2007-11-25 07:39:35
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As a boy, Randy Pausch painted an elevator door, a submarine and mathematical formulas on his bedroom walls. His parents let him do it, encouraging his creativity.
Last week, Dr. Pausch, a computer-science professor at Carnegie Mellon University, told this story in a lecture to 400 students and colleagues.
'If your kids want to paint their bedrooms, as a favor to me, let 'em do it,' he said. 'Don't worry about resale values.'
As I wrote last week, his talk was a riveting and rollicking journey through the lessons of his life. It was also his last lecture, since he has pancreatic cancer and expects to live for just a few months.
After he spoke, his only plans were to quietly spend whatever time he has left with his wife and three young children. He never imagined the whirlwind that would envelop him. As video clips of his speech spread across the Internet, thousands of people contacted him to say he had made a profound impact on their lives. Many were moved to tears by his words -- and moved to action. Parents everywhere vowed to let their kids do what they'd like on their bedroom walls.
'I am going to go right home and let my daughter paint her wall the bright pink she has been desiring instead of the 'resalable' vanilla I wanted,' Carol Castle of Spring Creek, Nev., wrote to me in an email to forward to Dr. Pausch.
People wanted Dr. Pausch to know that his talk had inspired them to quit pitying themselves, or to move on from divorces, or to pay more attention to their families. One woman wrote that his words had given her the strength to leave an abusive relationship. And terminally ill people wrote that they would try to live their lives as the 46-year-old Dr. Pausch is living his. 'I'm dying and I'm having fun,' he said in the lecture. 'And I'm going to keep having fun every day, because there's no other way to play it.'
For Don Frankenfeld of Rapid City, S.D., watching the full lecture was 'the best hour I have spent in years.' Many echoed that sentiment.
ABC News, which featured Dr. Pausch on 'Good Morning America,' named him its 'Person of the Week.' Other media descended on him. And hundreds of bloggers world-wide wrote essays celebrating him as their new hero. Their headlines were effusive: 'Best Lecture Ever,' 'The Most Important Thing I've Ever Seen,' 'Randy Pausch, Worth Every Second.'
In his lecture, Dr. Pausch had said, 'Brick walls are there for a reason. They let us prove how badly we want things.' Scores of Web sites now feature those words. Some include photos of brick walls for emphasis. Meanwhile, rabbis and ministers shared his brick-wall metaphor in sermons this past weekend.
Some compared the lecture to Lou Gehrig's 'Luckiest Man Alive' speech. A 15-year-old girl told Dr. Pausch that her AP English class had been analyzing the Gehrig speech, and 'I have a feeling that we'll be analyzing your speech for years to come.' Already, the Naperville, Ill., Central High School speech team plans to have a student deliver the Pausch speech word for word in competition.
As Dr. Pausch's fans emailed his speech to friends, some were sheepish. 'I am a deeply cynical person who reminds people frequently not to send me those sappy feel-good emails,' wrote Mark Pfeifer, a technology manager at a New York investment bank. 'Randy Pausch's lecture moved me deeply, and I intend to forward it on.'
In Miami, retiree Ronald Trazenfeld emailed the lecture to friends with a note to 'stop complaining about bad service and shoddy merchandise.' He suggested they instead hug someone they love.
Near the end of his lecture, Dr. Pausch had talked about earning his Ph.D., and how his mother would kiddingly introduce him: 'This is my son. He's a doctor, but not the kind who helps people.' It was a laugh line, but it led dozens of people to reassure Dr. Pausch: 'You ARE the kind of doctor who helps people,' wrote Cheryl Davis of Oakland, Calif.
Dr. Pausch feels overwhelmed and moved that what began in a lecture hall with 400 people is being experienced by millions. Still, he has retained his sense of humor. 'There's a limit to how many times you can read how great you are and what an inspiration you are,' he says, 'but I'm not there yet.'
Carnegie Mellon has a plan to honor Dr. Pausch. As a techie with the heart of a performer, he was a link between arts and sciences on campus. A new computer-science building is being built, and a footbridge will connect it to the arts building. The bridge will be named the Randy Pausch Memorial Footbridge.
'Based on your talk, we're thinking of putting a brick wall on either end,' joked the university's president, Jared Cohon, announcing the honor. He went on to say: 'Randy, there will be generations of students and faculty who will not know you, but they will cross that bridge and see your name and they'll ask those of us who did know you. And we will tell them.'
Dr. Pausch has asked Carnegie Mellon not to copyright his last lecture, and instead to leave it in the public domain. It will remain his legacy, and his footbridge, to the world.
在孩提时代,兰迪?鲍什(Randy Pausch)就在他卧室的墙上画上了一个电梯门、一艘潜艇,还有一些数学公式。他的父母并未阻止他,反而鼓励他开拓自己的创造力。
上周,身为卡耐基-梅隆大学(Carnegie-Mellon University)电脑科学教授的鲍什在向400名学生和同事发表演讲时提到了这件事。
他说,如果你的孩子也像我当年那样,想在卧室里涂涂画画的,就让他们去画吧。别担心你的房子转手的时候售价会受到影响。
他的演讲幽默生动,让我们分享了他的人生体验,这也将是他的最后一次演讲,因为他身患胰腺癌,估计只剩下几个月的时间了。
此次演讲结束后,他唯一的想法就是安静地同妻子和三个年幼的孩子度过他的余生。他根本没有想到自己的那次演讲会引发一阵旋风。演讲的视频片断在网上播出后,数以千计的人同他联系,表示他给他们的生活带来了深刻影响。许多人被他的演讲感动得热泪盈眶,并表示要立刻采取行动。各地的父母都表示,会允许孩子尽情地在卧室墙壁上涂鸦。
内华达州的卡罗?卡索耳(Carol Castle)在委托我转发给鲍什的电子邮件中写道:等我回到家里,我会让女儿给她房间墙壁涂上她喜欢的粉红色,而不是我考虑今后能卖个好价钱的香草白。
人们想让鲍什知道,他的讲话让他们不再自怨自艾,帮助他们走出离婚的阴影,或更加重视家庭。一位女性写道,鲍什的演讲给了她摆脱恶习的勇气。身患重症的病人写道,他们也会像46岁的鲍什那样继续生活。鲍什在演讲中说,我就要死了,但我依然很开心。我将依旧开心地度过每一天,因为我不知道还有其他的生活方式。
南达科他州的唐?福兰肯菲尔德(Don Frankenfeld)说,这次演讲是他多年来度过的最难忘的时刻。许多人也都有这种感觉。
ABC News在《早安美国》节目中播出了有关鲍什的内容,并把他评为本周人物。其它媒体也纷纷对他进行采访。全球有数百个博客发文将他称为新的英雄。标题都非常煽情:“有史以来最好的演讲”、“我经历的最重要的事情”、“兰迪?鲍什,值得你付出每一秒”等等。
鲍什在演讲中说过,砖墙的存在是有道理的,它让我们有机会表明我们是多么想拥有一些东西。许多网站都登载了这样的段落。一些网站还加入了墙的照片。同样,牧师们在这个周末布道时也在提到了他的砖墙理论。
一些人将他的演讲同卢?格里格(Lou Gehrig)的“最幸运的男人”的演讲相提并论。一个15岁的女孩告诉鲍什,她的AP英语课堂上一直在分析格里格的演讲,“我感觉,几年后就会分析你的演讲。” 伊利诺伊州内珀维尔的Central高中演讲团就计划在参赛时让一个学生演讲鲍什的内容。
鲍什迷们不断将他的演讲发给朋友们。纽约一家投资银行的技术部经理马克?费弗尔(Mark Pfeifer)说,我是一个很愤世嫉俗的人,经常提醒别人不要给我发那种自我感觉良好的煽情文章。但兰迪?鲍什的演讲让我非常感动,我也打算转发给他人。
在迈阿密,退休人员罗纳德?特拉赞菲尔德(Ronald Trazenfeld)将演讲内容发给朋友们,建议他们不要总抱怨糟糕的服务和低劣的商品质量,而是应该拥抱他们所爱的人。
在演讲要结束时,鲍什谈到在他获得博士学位后,他的母亲如何开着玩笑介绍他:这是我的儿子。他是一名“doctor”(博士),不过不是能帮人(治病)的doctor(医生)。这只是句玩笑话,不过不少人听到这个之后却像加州的切瑞?戴维斯(Cheryl Davis)那样赞美鲍什说:你就是能帮助人们的doctor。
在报告厅里给400人作的演讲被数百万人广为传颂,这让鲍什感到有些手足无措。不过,他一如既往地保持着他的幽默感。他说,人们能感到自己非常了不起、对他人很有激励作用的次数是有限的;看起来我还没有达到那个上限。
卡耐基-梅隆大学计划对鲍什予以褒奖。作为一位有艺术气质的技术专家,他是学校里的一座连接艺术与科学的桥梁。校园里一栋正在建设的电脑科学楼将有一座步行天桥通往艺术楼。这座桥将被命名为兰迪?鲍什纪念桥。
卡耐基-梅隆大学校长杰瑞德?柯亨(Jared Cohon)在宣布这一荣誉时幽默地说,根据你的演讲,我们正考虑在桥的两头都砌上砖墙。他说:鲍什,将来的学生和教职员可能不认识你,但他们会走过这座桥,看到你的名字,会向我们这些认识你的人问起你。我们会把一切告诉他们。
鲍什要求卡耐基-梅隆大学不要保留他最后一次演讲的版权,而是让它成为公共资源。而这次演讲将让他的精神遗产──还有那座步行天桥──留在这个世界上。 |
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