on lance and steve

A friend recently recommended the book Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. I should say, highly recommended; he was emphatic in his insistence that I pick it up. Before I dropped by The Tattered Cover, though, I picked up an older title. I re-read Lance Armstrong’s Every Second Counts.

Both books tell the tale of a successful man who beats cancer, at least long enough to realize how precious life is.

And so I drank a double dose of the Kool-Aid. Not bad stuff, to tell the truth.

Lance’s book, an oldie from 2003, reads like you’re sitting across the table from him, and he’s just talking. Super-relaxing prose, even while he’s talking about chemo and throwing up, which is a lot of the book. But the meaty parts jump out, and often.

I started taking notes on page 2. “At what point do you let go (of a situation). Maybe I haven’t entirely and maybe I don’t want to.” Note To Self: It’s okay to hold on, as long as you want to.

Lance states and re-states, in a variety of ways, a central message: “You have to decide how to live life, and that’s not an uncomplicated matter. You ask yourself: What’s the highest and best use of myself? These things aren’t linear, they’re a mysterious calculus.”

I frequently laid the book down and took the dog for a walk, pondering, What’s the highest and best use of myself? How does that differ from where I’m at today? And how do I get – safely yet gracefully – from here to there? Lance is right. It’s not an uncomplicated matter.

Thank you ~ Lance and Steve ~ for sharing your bit of human wisdom with the world around you. I'm so grateful that you did.