05.22.2009 - 11:54 a.m.

I had, I think, the usual range of professors in college. There were a few who I had no respect for, for various reasons. Many, I appreciated for their love of their subject, whether I shared that love or not. I had a blazing few who made me want to change my life.

I had, if I recall correctly, two classes with one who I won't name right now, for reasons that'll become clear in a paragraph or four. He taught philosophy, focusing on thinkers like Heidegger and Hegel and Kant. He was already an old man back then, combining Einstein hair with a quiet dignity and wit.

I did not appreciate him as much as I should have, on account of Hegel being the sort of writer you need sticky notes, an open browser, and a decoder ring to understand, a challenge I just wasn't up to as a freshman or sophomore. So I never read enough of this professor's material to really get into it with him, but he was a sweet man, and until the day he retired, we would always stop to say hi when we passed on the pathways.

Well.

Today I learned that he's dying. Cancer, which he's chosen to stop trying to treat. He fought for six months, and they figure he has about three left before the end. This will be his last summer.

He still meets with his old collegues, and they talk philosophy every few weeks as a group. One of the others, whose classes I also took and enjoyed, is planning a surprise as a goodbye (and the surprise is why there are no names in this post). He's asked all of this professor's alumni to answer two questions that grew out of their last "salon", which will be turned into a booklet to give to him:

1. If you had nine months to live, what, within the realm of real possibility, would give you the most sustained pleasure and sense of fulfillment?

2. What would you most like to do before you die?

I have a week to come up with my answers. Still with no decoder ring.

-stonebridge

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