I had breakfast with a colleague this morning, who recommended that I take a look at the eulogy Steve Jobs' sister's delivered at his funeral. A eulogy about Steve Jobs? Really Janet? I have to admit that I've secretly resented all the attention Steve Jobs' death has gotten in the media and how his words of wisdom are now so often now quoted on facebook as if he were a wise philospher and not just a businessman. I have generally judged this as a sad commentary on our culture - turning a wealthy entrepreneur into a kind of consumerist society saint - which has seemed to me to canonize wealth and influence and rugged individualism as our highest ideals.
But my conversation with my colleague has opened me up to a different viewpoint. She spoke admiringly of Steve Jobs' creativity, his commitment to excellence, his love of his work, his ability to risk and to change, and his search not just for function but for beauty. She pointed out that it is no mystery why people have paid so much attention to his passing is because he and his company and his products have really changed life as we know it for almost every individual in the US.
So I got off my high horse and took a look at the eulogy. Mr. Jobs' sister obviously loved him a whole lot, which her words clearly show, and according to her, his last words were, "Oh Wow, Oh Wow, Oh Wow!" Such final words would endear me to anyone, no matter what I knew or didn't know about them. So I decided that perhaps I will let go of my resentment about the press coverage of Steve Jobs' death and instead choose to focus on how sometimes it is only through another person that we can manage to see something bigger than our human selves, and how just a few very human words can somehow fully express the power of love, the adventure of death and the mysterious presence of God in and among us.
