Better people than me

I am ruminating about being 30 or 40-something. So naturally thoughts turn to what other people in the neighborhood of my age are doing. Here’s a couple:

Dara Torres (via kottke.org) is 41 and going to the Olympics for a fifth time.

Randy Pausch is 47 and dying of pancreatic cancer. He’s also giving inspiring last lectures (short version from Oprah here, long version here), and fully enjoying life now. I heard his lecture, and now I ask our son every day (that I remember to) “what was the best part of your day?”

Barack Obama is 47, and we all know what a good year he’s having.

Atul Gawande is 43, married with kids, a surgeon, and has been involved in health care policy for the Clinton administration. He also writes books, along with incredible articles like this and this in the New Yorker. Makes me tired just writing about him.

I’m 40, married to the best woman in the world, with two of the happiest kids I have ever met (in spite of me), a family that loves me (most of the time), and a job that I still enjoy. I am grateful to be me, here, now.

~ by ashok on July 8, 2008.