Contrasting Perspectives

Two very public and noted individuals have recently passed away. Their lives were in stark contrast to each other in so many ways. Yet, both were facing an uncertain future that neither could know for certain, though both knew they were dying. Their approach to death , like their lives, was a stark contrast.

Steve Jobs was a visionary entrepreneur. He was the genius behind Apple, although, he was a ruthless and merciless businessman. He was credited with more of the success of Apple than he probably deserved, however, he is responsible for the environment that allowed others to be creative and bless the world with devices that make it so much more enjoyable.

For eight years, he battled pancreatic cancer, eventually succumbing to it. As his disease progressed, he became more introspective and more concerned that his family, whom he neglected for most of his life, knew that he really did care for and loved them.

His lifelong perspective was to look for things that most others had never even considered and approach them with he attitude of, "Why not?" Consequently, he enriched this world in so many ways. His last words, spoken on his death bed were: "Oh, Wow! Oh, Wow! Oh, Wow!" In death, he obviously saw what even he could never have imagined.

Contrast that with the life and accomplishments of the renowned atheist, Christopher Hitchens. He spent his life as a columnist and literary critic. That really does little to describe his life or his life's work. He was in sum total, just a critic. Not in the sense of critiquing people or things, but simply in criticizing them - publicly if possible.

Most recently, his most vitriolic criticism was of God and of anyone "foolish enough to believe in such nonsense." In his 2007 book, God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, he contends that organised religion is "violent, irrational, intolerant, allied to racism, tribalism, and bigotry, invested in ignorance and hostile to free inquiry, contemptuous of women and coercive toward children."

Interestingly, in 2010 he was diagnosed with esophageal cancer, which recently took his life. Many wondered if a terminal illness would soften his views. It did not. Shortly be fore he died, he said this as he discussed the possibility of a deathbed conversion, insisting that the odds were slim that he would admit the existence of God:

“The entity making such a remark might be a raving, terrified person whose cancer has spread to the brain. I can’t guarantee that such an entity wouldn’t make such a ridiculous remark, but no one recognizable as myself would ever make such a remark.”

Benjamin Franklin once remarked, "He who has had a bull by the tail knows two or three things more than he who has not." So now do both of these men. I can't help but wonder how different their perceptions are now!