Brick Walls Part I

Randy Pausch is a name you probably are not familiar with. Until the fall of 2007, I too had never heard of his name. But over the course of 2008 I had taken a vested interest in what Randy had to say about life. In fact, something that I heard him once say is one of the most powerful quotes I have ever come across, “…brick walls are not there to keep us out, the brick walls are there to show us how badly we want something. The brick walls are there to keep those out who don’t want it bad enough.” Wow! Talk about profound! This Carnegie Mellon University computer science Professor was wise beyond his years.

Just what is a brick wall? To each of us brick walls come in different sizes, made with different material strengths. We each face life with different levels of tolerances, some of us are more capable of knocking down life obstacles than others. When life shouts “NO” at us we have a choice or two. The barrier in our way may be so solidified that we cannot find a way to push past. Racism and discrimination ring a bell? Some of us scratch our heads and develop strategies to get what we want out of life when we are told no. We either go over the barrier, around the obstacle or dig a path beneath it to reach the other side when we cannot push past. When someone tells us that we cannot: advance in our career; be elected into a club office; become a doctor; graduate high school or college; raft down the Nile; ever be in shape enough to climb Pikes Peak or even lose weight—WE are the ones that have the power to make other people’s negative prophesying our own. Or, we develop unique ways to get to the other side.

Yes there are gate keepers in life that are in place to tempt us to turn around when we meet resistance to a grand goal or idea we have. Gate keepers can serve a positive purpose in that they cause us to reflect the situation at hand. Remember how Randy said that the walls keep those out who really do not want “it” bad enough (whatever *it* is)? After a period of self-reflection we decide if we really want what we were going after in the first place. Once that door of “no” slams in our face or on our foot, we have a decision to make—to either turn around with our tail between our legs in defeat, or to regroup and try a different path towards that goal.

We are sometimes fortunate in life to come across people that somehow touch our life so deeply that we are changed forever. This is how I feel about Randy Pausch. Though I have never personally met Randy, we were colleagues in academia, as well as co-conspirators, often reflecting the meaning of life in words we share with others. Though I will never physically meet Randy now, his wisdom, insight and purpose have left me forever moved. Unfortunately, in 2008 on July 25th, Randy lost his valiant battle to pancreatic cancer. He left behind a loving, dedicated wife and three young children under the age of six, to morn his loss, yet celebrate his existence…