The Last 30 Days
Today I had lunch with a man who dreams of climbing Mount Everest. I’m not sure how long he’s had this dream, but it surfaced most tangibly several months ago after someone posed the question, “What would you do if you had only 30 days to live?” His answer was immediate – “Climb Mount Everest.” As serendipity goes, the next day the man began a new job as, among other things, my wife’s boss. On his first day he quickly recognized Cate’s name, and a short time later we had lunch, as we tried to figure out a way to make his dream come true.
My uncle was recently asked the same question, by his oncologist, who estimated he had something more in the neighborhood of six months. My uncle is a doctor as well, and was startled that the cancer which has so suddenly grown beyond possible treatment was not in existence ten months earlier, when the same tests were performed and returned negative. Surprised and frustrated, he returned home and has spent his precious remaining days researching the illness to determine if there could be a genetic marker that could help the rest of our family detect and avoid the disease.
The casual observer could try to draw conclusions about each man – perhaps the man who dreams of Everest is overly selfish, while the man who dreams of saving his family is truly selfless. But perhaps the two dreams tell us more about how each man has lived, rather than how he will die. The first man gave up many of his own dreams for those of his family. He and his wife raised three children, and devoted all the time that remained to their careers, while their family prospered. The second man travelled the world, read through countless libraries, and generally experienced all that the world has to offer. It really can’t be any surprise that at the end, every man seeks what he hasn’t already fully obtained.
As my wife and I discussed the same question at dinner tonight, we both had the same desires for our last thirty days – to bring our family around us and play a few games.
We agreed that this year we would continue to relentlessly pursue our dreams while seeking out all the world has to offer, but resolved not forget about the test of those last thirty days, and take a little more time this year to pull our family closer and enjoy.
Training time in Charlotte, NC with James.
