Luckiest Man in the World

Howard Rheingold is one of the luckiest men I know. He has cancer, and is posting about that experience as "howardsbutt." That's not so lucky, I suppose.

But when i read the following, I envied him"

I am doing three kinds of things now .I get on planes and give keynote speeches. That’s mostly how I pay my bills. I teach at Stanford and Berkeley and the California Institute of Integral Studies. I’m working on a multifaceted project about 21st century literacies that involves teaching tools, videos, and, eventually, a book. I’m doing this book on my own because even before I knew I had cancer I knew I didn’t want to wait for publishers to finally get what I’m talking about (I wrote about virtual communities in 1987, but it took until 1992 to convince a publisher that anybody but engineers would ever be interested in using computers to communicate). I applied for a Guggenheim grant. I gave notice to UC Berkeley that I’m taking leave this Spring semester to work on my book. I’m open to an angel investor. But I’m already being my own angel investor. I’m going to continue this project as far as I am able to do so. The subject is important. It’s part of what I uniquely have to contribute to the world. It isn’t going to cure a disease or cause world peace to break out, but I do believe that the instruments I am building for spreading know-how about the best use of digital media could enable others to do good things.

As I told my digital journalism students, it took me zero seconds to realize that I’m going to continue teaching them as long as I’m able, because I know that equipping the people who are going to reinvent journalism is an important thing to do. And because trying to teach and learn excellently is the most difficult and rewarding work I’ve ever done.

Come Spring, I hope to have recovered from the treatment cycle that I am now beginning. Time to plant the garden and work on the book. For the past couple decades, I’ve been blessed to sit barefoot under my plum tree, my mind wired directly to the world through my laptop. I yearn to return to that blessed place for another Spring, another Summer, if such is granted to me. Until then, I’m working with my students until the end of the quarter — which corresponds with the end of my treatment cycle.