As most of the country focused on the news that former President Joe Biden has an advanced, aggressive form of prostate cancer, many missed that Scott Adams, the creator of the famous Dilbert comic, was revealing to his followers that he was suffering from an identical diagnosis.
But unlike the former president, whose condition is wrapped in secrecy, speculation, and deception, Adams spoke openly and with a refreshing honesty about facing the end of his life on earth. Dilbert fan or not, the clarity of mind revealed in the observations of a dying man are something we'd all benefit from hearing.
You've got TikTok doing these videos for childless adults saying how great their weekends are because they don't have any kids. Now, I have two feelings about that. Number one, they're totally right about how great their weekend is without kids.
However, I'll just speak for myself. There's almost nothing I ever did as a single person, even if I was in a relationship, there was almost nothing I ever did that was as fun as getting up on a Saturday morning and watching my stepdaughter at the time play soccer in a non-competitive, you know, intramural kind of a team.
No, there's nothing I did that was more fun than that. And was it easy? Nope, there was driving and waking up and getting food and making sure everybody's taken care of, and you gotta bring chairs down and cancel everything else, and it's a lot of work. But there's nothing I did that I felt like I deeply, deeply enjoyed like just watching my stepdaughter play soccer. That's it.
The second thing … do you ever think about what you would remember if your life flashed in front of you like you're dying? I don't know if that really happens. Like, I don't think if my life were flashing before my eyes, I don't think I would think about my Dilbert career.
You know, 35 years of doing it every day - I don't think I would think about it. I'll tell you what I would think about, if I can. I would think about watching Disney movies with my step kids. That's it. That's what I would think about.
A man facing the end of his life is explaining what one day every single one of us will feel - "I should have invested more time in people close to me. I should have laughed more, watched more, listened more, been present more than I was."
Watching that I was reminded of the late Steve Jobs who once told an interviewer that having kids was 15,000 times better than anything else he did in his life. And by any human measuring stick, Steve Jobs did a lot in his life. But he was testifying that time in anonymity with family close by is far greater than wealth, prestige, and "accomplishment." The saddest part of his realization is that it came too late. Shortly before his death, Jobs was asked why he had hired a biographer and relented to the personal questions that such a researcher would undoubtedly pose. Jobs' answer was chilling:
'I wanted my kids to know me,' he said. 'I wasn't always there for them, and I wanted them to know why and to understand what I did.'
Jobs knew how important his kids were - 15,000 times more important than his job. But he felt obligated to spend so much time doing that less important job that he had to hire a biographer at the end of his life so that his kids would know who he was. That's how easily it can happen to all of us. Perhaps those of us still living should heed the words of one dying man, and the words of one who is already dead.
But still, with as prescient and powerful as Adams' testimony was, he made one mistake:
"Nothing lasts forever?"
That's not quite right, and I'm guessing Adams actually knows it.
There is something that lasts forever: the human soul. We may pretend otherwise when we want to avoid the accountability associated with eternal justice, but each of us have moments where we recognize that we were made for something more than this. That there exists in each of us a longing for another time, and another place - a yearning for fulfillment that this world can never pacify or satisfy.
If you go back and listen carefully, the totality of Adams' commentary is screaming affirmation of Jesus' caution in His Sermon on the Mount:
'Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.' - Matthew 6:19-21
In comparison to the eternal existence of the human soul - spent either in God's presence or separated from it completely - our time spent on earth is but a mist, here one second and gone the next. We may grieve the loss of young people more because it seems to us that they, "had so much life yet to live." But the truth so often obscured in our grief is that we all have so much life yet to live on the other side, and the fleeting moments we have here on this earth are best spent preparing for it.
If that means we need to make some changes, let's not wait until we have Scott Adams' perspective before we do.
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Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Not the Bee or any of its affiliates.
