This led me to think: what would I want to include in MY last lecture? I'll have to think about that....stay tuned.
Edit: I want to revise my earlier opinion. There are many people in this world who do their very, very best with what they have been given. Randy Pausch http://www.postgazette.com/pg/08267/914333-298.stm was one of those people. I'm pretty sure he faced his Maker with the words, "I have not a single bit of talent left; I used everything you gave me." (paraphrased from Erma Bombeck, humor writer that also died of cancer).
Those of us who have been given the fullness of the gospel have an even greater motivation to live life to the fullest, to live a life filled with gratitude.
Another of those people that I have always thought did their very, very best with what he was given was Peter Popov, Adam's trombone teacher when we lived in the Dominican Republic. He had faced tremendous problems in his life: he grew up in Communist Bulgaria, was in a plane crash where he lost the sight in one eye, he suffered the death of his wife. He came to the DR as a professional trombonist with the Dominican National Symphony, seeking a better life for him and his daughters. When we met him, he had saved for a couple of years to get enough money to bring them to the DR to be with him. I'll never forget how excited he was when the day came that they were to arrive; he was just beside himself. We were able to meet them right away, and they were BEAUTIFUL girls: Vessela, age 19 and Jivka, age 15.
And then tragedy struck. Just a week after they had been in country, the girls went to a disco. Some men followed them home, and when Peter tried to defend his daughters, he was stabbed to death.
It was such a terrible catastrophe, but through it all, I couldn't help but reflect on what I knew of his life, and I just knew that he was received into the Savior's arms, with the words, "Well done, my good and faithful servant."
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