What’s the view of turkeys going to heaven?

Having a debate at work, do turkeys go to heaven or not? One Catholic was categorical in stating that there is no soul ergo no Heaven.One Muslims thought that that they dont but then another one said that the pictures of heaven showed animals and trees and stuff. The Hindu’s had a different view. The Buddhist said yes, they go to heaven definitely but there are different views about whether or not heaven exists. So we googled and came across this site.

I definitely think animals go to heaven.

Pet Heaven: Faiths have differing views about animals in the afterlife
Lynn Arave ("Deseret News," November 26, 2010)

Salt Lake City, USA - Do pets and animals go to heaven?

This is a widespread question on the Internet, with more than 4.3 million sites trying to address the issue in some fashion.

A fido paradise or kitty heaven isn't specifically mentioned in the Bible and so every religion has its own beliefs.

Animals were present and peaceful in the Garden of Eden, though. The future for animals is also promising — according to the Bible — as the lion shall eat straw like the ox in the Millennium and the wolf, leopard and sheep are also mentioned as existing on earth and living peacefully then (Isaiah chapter 11).

Here's a sampling from various faiths on the animals in heaven topic:

According to the Catholic Answers Forum (forums.catholic.com), "Animals have a material soul that ceases to exist when they die. Humans have a spiritual soul that continues to exist after death," Michelle Arnold, a Catholic Answers apologist, stated.

"But does this mean that animals will not be present in the afterlife? That is a question to which we do not have an answer. There does however seem to be hints that God will restore the universe at the end of time. As animals are part of the 'visible universe,' it seems possible that they too might share 'their glorification in the risen Jesus Christ.' It might be possible that God might also re-create those animals who have been a pleasure and comfort to man in his earthly journey. We don't know in this life, but it is something for which we can hope."

She also said that if pets are needed for our perfect happiness in heaven, then pets will be there.

The catechism of the Catholic Church does not directly address the question of pets going to heaven, according to Dr. Richard Geraghty, PhD, of EWTN, the global Catholic Television, Catholic Radio, and Catholic News Network. He says that while all living beings have a soul, the soul of a plant or animal goes out of existence when they die, while a human soul does not.

Animals lack the intelligence which allows them to choose either God's will or their own will and are thus not accountable for their actions, he argues.

"The church will demand that animals be respected as part of creation while at the same time insisting that the dignity owed a human being should never be given to an animal," Geraghty stated.

Zen Buddhists simply have no specific belief in an afterlife for animals.

Jehovah's Witnesses believe that the entire earth will be a sanctuary in the eternities and that includes being a peaceful place for animals.

An official statement from the Seventh-Day Adventist Church states:

"Although human beings are the pinnacle of creation, all creatures are the handiwork of God and thus are deserving of our esteem and protection. Because we are sinful, we sometimes forget our obligations to other creatures. Ecosystem and species destruction are visible evidence of our sinfulness."

While it does not address the possibility of animals in heaven, the statement warned: "How we treat animals reveals our true nature."

There is no Jewish tradition with regard to pets and heaven. However, most western Jews believe that all love comes from God and will return to God. This could therefore include faithful companions, like man's best friend, going to heaven too.

According to the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, the question of animals going to heaven is a "cautious 'maybe.'"

The Rev. John Brug stated in 1995 in the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod publication, "Since animals do not have immortal souls, we might think the answer is no. Several facts, however, make one hesitant to be satisfied with a simple 'no.'"

He said there may be plants and animals in the new earth as there were in the first earth.

"If there are animals on the new earth, they will be good creatures of God as the animals of the first earth were."

Information on the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. Web site — www.pcusa.org — appears to argue that logically God would not exclude creatures in the afterlife who were part of his original paradise in the Garden of Eden.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has a strong belief for pets/animals in paradise.

The Prophet Joseph Smith said animals — varied creatures — will be found in heaven ('Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith,' pages 291-292).

According to the Encyclopedia of Mormonism, "Latter-day Saints believe that animals, like humans, have spirits. Mortal and subject to death, animals will be saved through the Atonement of Christ."

The short answer to the question, "Do animals go to heaven?" is "yes, and only to the celestial kingdom," Brett H. Latimer, a Brigham Young University professor said during a Campus Education Week presentation at Brigham Young University in 2008.

He also suggested that how their owners care for them may have something to do with their owners' salvation.

Gerald E. Jones, former director, Institute of Religion, Berkeley, Calif., in a March 1977 Ensign magazine answered many animal queries in the "I Have a Question" section:

"— Do animals have spirits and are they resurrected? Yes. The Prophet Joseph Smith received information concerning the eternal status of animals. Answers to questions he posed are in the 'Doctrine and Covenants,' section 77. He also spoke about the resurrection of animals in a sermon but did not expand on the subject. ('History of the Church,' 5:343.)

"— To what degree of glory do animals go? The scriptures speak only of animals being in the celestial kingdom. Whether they go to other kingdoms is a matter of conjecture. Elder Joseph Fielding Smith on one occasion said the distribution of animals into all three degrees of glory is 'very probable,' (Improvement Era, Jan. 1958, pp. 16–17.) To my knowledge, no other prophet has published an opinion on the subject.

"— Are animals judged and resurrected according to their obedience to laws? According to Elder Joseph Fielding Smith, animals do not have a conscience. They cannot sin and they cannot repent, for they have not the knowledge of right and wrong. ('Man: His Origin and Destiny,' Deseret Book Co., 1954, pp. 204–5.)

"— Can animals be with their owners in the hereafter? There is no revealed word on this subject. Reason would tell us that a rancher or farmer may not want all of the cattle he has owned during his life. On the other hand, emotional ties may be honored and family pets may well be restored to their owners in the resurrection. Elder Orson F. Whitney wrote that Joseph Smith expected to have his favorite horse in eternity. (Improvement Era, Aug. 1927, p. 855.)

"— Just what is the relationship between men and animals? Men are children of God. Animals are for the benefit of man. This does not mean, however, that man is not to have a concern for this part of his stewardship. The prophets in all ages have indicated that man will be accountable for his treatment of animals and that justice and mercy should be exercised concerning them ..."

Career Choices and Education

Son

I came across this article. I quote:

Laurel O’Gorman is one of the faces of Occupy Toronto. She believes the capitalist system has robbed her of her future. At 28, she’s studying for a master’s degree in sociology at Laurentian University in Sudbury. She’s also the single mother of two children. “I’m here because I don’t know what kind of job I could possibly find that would allow me to pay rent, take care of these two children and pay back $600 each month in loans,” she said.

Here’s Boston resident Sarvenaz Asasy, 33, who has a master’s degree in international human rights, along with $60,000 in student loans. She dreamed of doing work to help the poor get food and education. But now she can’t find a job in her field. She blames the government. “They’re cutting all the grants, and they’re bailing out the banks. I don’t get it.”

Then there’s John, who’s pursuing a degree in environmental law. He wants to work at a non-profit. After he graduated from university, he struggled to find work. “I had to go a full year between college and law school without a job. I lived at home with my parents to make ends meet.” He thinks a law degree will help, but these days, I’m not so sure.

There are 3 examples of people who are picking up some serious amounts of debt but have no idea how to get a job or to pay for it. At this moment, they are in trouble. So the question that comes up is, what is the link between the course you do and the job you get? Its vital to think about that piece otherwise you will end up like people mentioned here, people with debts, responsibilities and a degree which is useless for any kind of job. So what happens? They protest. Not good.

Persian Views

I am studying Farsi. Its now been couple of months that I have been attending classes. First of all, its not easy for an empirical positivist like me to understand the rather free flowing mechanism of learning languages. Grammar rules, punctuation, vocabulary are all foreign bodies to me. But interestingly enough, I read this article:

“Urdu is a mixture of Persian, Arabic and Turkish words formed with the intermingling of invading Muslim armies and local Hindi-speaking Hindus. It’s a Turkish word which means Army camp, hoard, etc.”

Almost everyone who knows something about the Urdu language knows this statement, which is logically incomprehensible, historically incorrect and linguistically misleading. Irrespective of the fact as to who made this statement, why it was made and when it was initiated for the first time, one thing can be said with utmost certainty that it has profound socio-political and socio-linguistic impact in the Indian Subcontinent for the last 150 years, i.e., with the advent of British Raj in this region.

One can draw a few inferences from this falsehood which has shaped our perception, consciously and sub-consciously that Urdu is not a native language of the Indian Subcontinent rather it’s a language of foreign invaders. Consequently it must be disowned if not hated.

Historically it is incorrect because the Muslim rulers did not introduce any new language. Instead they gave a new script (Persio-Arabic or Nastaliq), which was comprehendible to the spoken language of India. They even invented and introduced new signs or letters for the new sounds which are utterly local to the existing Persio-Arabic script, i.e., all the aspirated sounds of Bha, Pha, Tha, Gha, Dha, Rha, Lha and retroflexed sounds like Rah, Taa, Daa, etc. Hence all the tens of thousands of words spoken in Urdu containing these sounds have their origin in the early Vedic or middle Vedic era, i.e., 400 to 600BC.

In addition to that all the infinitives (Masader) ending on Na sound like Aana, Jaana, Khana, Peena, Uthna, Baithna, Perhna, Likhna, Sona, Jagna, Chalna, Bhagna, Larna, Dhukna, Boolna, Sunna, Kehna, etc. All are words of this language being spoken as the vernacular of early Vedic and middle Vedic period.

The process of loaning words from other languages is a sign of a living and progressing language. Urdu is one such language.
All the speakers of Urdu neither became Muslim by including Persian or Arabic words nor are they now converted to Christianity by including English words in its words corpus. On the contrary, perhaps, the Indian ruling elite believe that they will become Muslims if they use Arabic and Persian words, so they are making conscious efforts to replace most of these words with Sanskrit words. This policy may have socio-political advantages albeit not without socio-political repercussions.
As a student of linguistics only one comment can be made on this current policy of India that such a policy leads into secluding more people and ethnic groups rather than integrating them.

Lets analyse a few historical facts. The Turks started converting to Islam in 920AD with the invasion of Arabs. The Arabs put their foot on the soil of Sindh in 711AD but they were in constant contact with the Indian Subcontinent for centuries prior to Islam. The Ottoman Turk Empire was established in 1299. Lahore was under the rule of Mahmud Ghaznavi in 1254AD.
However, the interaction of Persian speaking people with India via trade goes back to the before Christ (BC) era. In short, the cultural association of Persian and Arabic-speaking people with the Indian people predates Islam.

Arabic, Persian and Turkish vocabularies were brought to India by traders, invaders and preachers. Turkish is the only language which was restricted to invaders or rulers whereas Arabic was introduced by traders as well as early invaders which remained restricted to present day Sindh and southern Punjab. Persian, the most influential of the three, remained the language of invaders, traders and preachers over the centuries. Interestingly, the language of preachers and Sufis and early Muslim poets in India always remained Persian … neither Turkish nor Arabic.

Coming to the misstatement mentioned in the beginning of this article, let’s analyse the empirical data as to how many words of Turkish are borrowed by Urdu? Based on this data the inference will be made on whether Turkish has any part in the making of Urdu. Leaving aside the syntax and grammar of the two, which are completely different, many people believe the theory of Urdu’s derivation from Turkish, and a few have attempted to prove it too.

One such attempt was made by Mr Purdil Khattak who wrote Urdu aur Turki Kay Mushtarik Alfaz published by Muqtedarah Qaumi Zuban (1987), Islamabad. He did make a great effort and was able to enlist only 2,608 words, which are commonly spoken by a Turkish speaker and an Urdu speaker. If we take this statement as it is even then in a language which has over 3,00,000 words with the base of more than 80,000 Lexemes (as contained in 21 volumes of Urdu Lughat of Urdu Lughat Board Karachi, a meticulous work completed in 25 years), 2,608 words means 0.8 per cent of the total words, which itself means nothing to that claim that Turkish contributed in the formation of Urdu.

The most interesting part of this research is that the list of 2,608 words common in Turkish and Urdu only contains 24 words which are pure Turkish. The rest are either Arabic, Persian or English words used commonly by Turks and Urdu speakers.

This list contains 1,546 pure Arabic words most of them are Quranic words such as ayat (Quranic verse), bait (house), azeem (great), barq (thunder), jahil (illiterate), jannat (heaven), jamal (beauty), jaib (pocket), jehad (holy war), dakhil (interior), jurm (crime), dalil (proof), deen (religion), ambiya (prophets), ahim (important), fatwa(religious decree), atraf (sides), fashi (eloquent), ghafil (indolent), fikr (thought), khaber (news), hakim (ruler), haal (present), khalis (pure), khas (special), harb (war), hilal (crescent), khilaf (opposite), hudood (limits), and so on.

In the same list, 485 words are pure Persian, borrowed from Turkish such as aab-o-hawa (weather), ambaar (heap), asoodah (well off), ashiyana (home/nest), arzoo (desire), arasta (decorated), badan (body), bahaar (spring season), bohran (crisis), buland (high), badter (worst), Beyzar (dejected), kahkasan (galaxy), kiswar (country), kutubkhana (library), madad (help), marasim (relations), masroor (ecstatic), mard (man), maakhana (pub), medaan (ground), murdar (dead), etc.

But there are so many words that I grew up with that I find common. Angur (grapes), rooz (day), hafte (week), maa (month), saal (year), jangal (forest), manzil (house), raah (path / road), yek baar (once), do bar (twice), sefed (white), buzugh (big/elder), nazik (thin), tazeh (fresh), khaley (empty), khoub (good), nerem (soft), ananas (pineapple), peyaz (onions), lobeya (beans), bird (perendeh), sheyer (lion), lebas (clothes) and so on and so forth.

While I am struggling with the verbs, the compound verbs, the issue that the sentence structure is Subject Object Verb, but the words are quite common, i am surprised at this level of similarities between Hindi and Urdu with Persian. But I guess I shouldnt be surprised. Fascinating. I am also heavily struggling with writing left to right and the damn diacritical marks. The punctuation/ diacritical marks are so important, you have to be precise and remember what the hell it is. Not just that, you could have the same letter but it could be a vowel or it could be a consonant. And one letter can have three pronunciations. Just kill me. Why the hell did I have to pick this up? I should have picked up something simpler, like mine clearing..

Divorce at marriage ceremony

BRAVO BRAVO.

Excellent news, this woman needs to be congratulated. These morons and idiots who demand dowry, these people who are genitally challenged should be forced to sleep with flea infested camels and then a bucket of warm spit poured over them while being kicked with hob nailed boots will only realise when they are publicly mocked. Bastards. May he never be able to sustain an erection. So there. And for his aunt, may your hair fall out in clumps and warts grow on your nose. So there even. Detest these bastards and witches. Bah, but what a great woman, now that’s courage for you. Attagirl.

I quote:

A bride has divorced the bridegroom for demanding dowry on the very day of marriage.
The bride, Farjana Yasmin, is the daughter of Khalilur Rahman of Kalipura village under Kukua union council of Amtali upazila of the district. She recently completed her Masters in Social Welfare from Dhaka's Eden College, securing first class.
The bridegroom, Shawkat Ali Khan alias Hiran, is headmaster of a government primary school at Kalapara upazila in Patuakhali district. He is the son of Shah Alam Khan of Madrasah Road area in Kalapara municipality.
Farjana told bdnews24.com that she was married to Shawkat on Friday morning.
"As they were about to leave our house along with me, his (Shawkat) aunt Tahmina Begum demanded a TV set, refrigerator, motorbike and some other things as dowry in presence of the guests," she said.
As Shawkat also supported his aunt's demand, Farjana divorced him then and there.
"He who demands dowry can never be my life partner. I'm divorcing him in your presence," she told the guests.
The relatives of the bridegroom tried to solve the row until 9:45pm, but Farjana stuck to her guns.
The relatives of the bridegroom left the ceremony humiliated.
Farjana told bdnews24.com, "In my student life, I was an anti-dowry activist and generated awareness against it among the people. But now I have myself become its victim."
"I think women should stand against dowry."
Contacted, Shawkat's mobile phone set was found switched off.
Tahmina is the headmistress of a government primary school of Kalapara Sadar upazila.

Sarcasm bewilders me

I have to admit that sarcasm bewilders me, usually I cant understand it and take it for face value. So people usually have to say <sarcasm font> or wave a flag. But looks like I am missing a trick..

From Smithsonian Magazine:

Sarcasm seems to exercise the brain more than sincere statements do. Scientists who have monitored the electrical activity of the brains of test subjects exposed to sarcastic statements have found that brains have to work harder to understand sarcasm.

That extra work may make our brains sharper, according to another study. College students in Israel listened to complaints to a cellphone company’s customer service line. The students were better able to solve problems creatively when the complaints were sarcastic as opposed to just plain angry. Sarcasm “appears to stimulate complex thinking and to attenuate the otherwise negative effects of anger,” according to the study authors.

And:

Sarcasm so saturates 21st-century America that according to one study of a database of telephone conversations, 23 percent of the time that the phrase “yeah, right” was used, it was uttered sarcastically. Entire phrases have almost lost their literal meanings because they are so frequently said with a sneer. “Big deal,” for example. When’s the last time someone said that to you and meant it sincerely? “My heart bleeds for you” almost always equals “Tell it to someone who cares,” and “Aren’t you special” means you aren’t.

Or else since this was done in Israel, this could well be a zionist plot <sarcasm font>

I hate Narendra Shenoy urf Kolaveri

He got me hooked on this song. Go read the background to this here. 

And I am not tamil either. I liked the holy cow business. Narendra made a rip of this here.

Now this damn Kolaveri business is rattling around in my head like two vicious tasmanian devils fed on marmite and with their tails on fire. Nice birds on the video, mind you. And I was happy to note that the guys still have mustaches. Good chaps.

Saudi moral committee threatens to cover “tempting” women’s eyes

First the story:

Women with sexy eyes in Saudi Arabia may be forced to cover them up, according to the spokesperson of the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (CPVPV) in the conservative Gulf kingdom.

Spokesman of the Ha’eal district, Sheikh Motlab al-Nabet said the committee has the right to stop a women whose eyes seem “tempting” and order her to cover them immediately.

Saudi women are already forced to wear a loose black dress and to cover their hair and in some areas, their face, while in public or face fines or sometimes worse, including public lashings.

The announcement came days after the Saudi newspaper al-Watan reported that a Saudi man was admitted to a hospital after a fight with a member of the committee when he ordered his wife to cover her eyes. The husband was then stabbed twice in the hand.

/facepalm

While in Israel, this is what’s being pushed around.

That Orthodox Judaism forbids a man from hearing a woman sing. These soldiers adhere to the strict interpretation of the expression “Kol B’Isha Erva.” This might translate as, “the voice of a woman is like nakedness.” Or as, “the voice of a woman is like her vagina.”

And these are men? MEN? They are barbarians, molluscs would hesitate to associate with them, the morons. Truly frightening idiocy of the first order, that they read something in some medieval book, park their brains in the basement, and go forth to do this kind of Neanderthal crap.

No wonder all the prophets had to be born in the middle east, look what they had to work with, God has had to work overtime on these muppets.

Slavery, Abolitionism, and the Ethics of Biblical Scholarship

I did not know the extent of the support that slavery had in the Bible but when I read this book review, I was quite surprised. Have put this into my to be read pile, but in the meantime, just check the main points of the book. The book also talks about how the various popes and other luminaries did / didn't do. Fascinating stuff. One of the worst crimes that man commits on his fellow man.

3. Near Eastern Ethics and Slavery
Mesopotamian Beginnings
Egypt and Divine Care for Humanity
Hittites and Lex talionis
Greece and the Bonds of Freedom
Rome: Home of Slavery and Freedom
The Imago Dei and Universal Inequality

4. Slavery in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament
Lexicographers as Apologists
Genesis 1:26: Let Dominion Begin
Genesis 3:16 and Female Subjugation
Genesis 9:19-27 and Noah’s Curse
Genesis 16: Rape of a Slave Woman?
Genesis 17:12 and Genital Mutilation
Genesis 17:23: Abraham, the Blessed Slavemaster
Exodus 1-15: A Liberationist Paradigm?
Exodus 20:10 / Deuteronomy 5:12-15 and the Sabbath
Exodus 21:1-6 and Term Limits
Exodus 21:16 and “Manstealing”
Exodus 21:20: Killing Slaves
Exodus 21:26-27: Beating Manumission
Leviticus 25:42: Who’s your Master?
Leviticus 25:35-43: Jubilee Manumission
Leviticus 25:44-46: Enslaving Outsiders
Deuteronomy 15 and Inner Biblical Progress
Deuteronomy 23:15: Fugitive Slaves
1 Samuel 8: Exclusive Service to Yahweh?
Ezra 2:64-65 and Slave Societies
Job 31:13-15 and Justice for Slaves
Joel 2:28-29: Possessing Slaves

5. Slavery in the New Testament
Matthew 7:12: The Golden Rule
Acts 17:26 and Human Unity
1 Corinthians 7:21: Better to Remain in Slavery?
Galatians 3:28: A Magna Carta of Humanity?
Galatians 4:7: No Longer Slaves?
Ephesians 6:5: Obedience through Terror
Philippians 2:4-6: Slavery as Human Destiny
Colossians 3:18-4:1: The Magic of Socio-Rhetorical Criticism
1 Timothy 1:10: Manstealing
1 Timothy 6: Honoring Christian Slavemasters
Philemon: What Are You Insinuating?
Why Was the New Testament Not More Vocal?

6. Christ as Imperial Slavemaster
Imperial Political Rhetoric 101
Christ as Emperor
Christ as Slavemaster
Jesus and God’s Plantation
Christ and the Least of my Brethren
Christ, the Torture Master
Are Believers Friends of Slaves?

The 7 Fastest-Growing Cities in the World

I didnt get even a single one right. I am gobsmacked. Check out this site.

Text of Steve Jobs' Commencement address

Good morning son

here's an interesting commencement speech by Steve jobs. I have seen this video and speech in a variety of different ways. Some show it to talk about innovation. Some show it to talk about recovering from failure. Some show it to talk about product design. Its one of those things, can fit anything..But its interesting all right. I wanted to give you my interpretation on the second and third part of it.

Son, I have failed many times in my life. Seriously failed. I have failed in class when I was studying mathematics. Yep, me the proverbial math nerd failed in math class. I have failed in Sanskrit, me who now likes reading the old religious and mythological books in Sanskrit. I have failed in chemistry. I was a horrible student, rarely getting good marks in school and even in college. I failed in making the navy as my long term career. I failed in being the best teacher possible in Indore. I failed in spending more time with you when you were little. I failed to save lives at the Bhopal Gas Tragedy. I even fail to put away my clothes properly and then I get scolded by Mamma. I fail to mind Diya's toys when I go to kiss her in the morning and then she scolds me. I fail to keep my promises many times. I failed to look after the garden this summer. Failure is part of my life. Yet, life goes on. That is what I hope you can appreciate. Failure is to be recognised. I will keep on failing throughout my life. Constantly. Every day I fail. But I win as well. The trick, my son, is to learn from these mistakes and failures. Anticipate failure and if it happens, don't beat yourself up on it. The problem is not failing, everybody fails. the problem is not learning from it.

The second is the talk about death. You are too young to know death, son, and frankly death is a boring old time. I have been close to death many times and have seen too much death already, which has fortunately inured me from it. But here are something that you should learn about death. People are basically afraid of death and they will do almost anything to avoid it. You know why? the main reason is that they are afraid of the unknown. But as a Hindu, you have the luxury to know that you will come back to life again. Even if you are not a believer, the trick to not to be afraid of death is to live life every day as if its your last day. You shouldn't have any regrets. I can drop dead today and I will not have any regrets son. Plus then there will be the next life to look forward to, which is fun. So live life, son, as if its your last day and do things that make you happy.
And for this, you have to stay hungry and stay foolish. Stay hungry for more learning, making more money, having love, conquering new worlds and experiences. And Stay foolish, never stop asking questions, son, keep on poking at things, keep on being foolish and ask the stupid questions.

Love

Baba

Text of Steve Jobs' Commencement address (2005)
http://news.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html

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Stanford Report, June 14, 2005
‘You’ve got to find what you love,’ Jobs says

This is a prepared text of the Commencement address delivered by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, on June 12, 2005.

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I’ve ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That’s it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: “We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?” They said: “Of course.” My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents’ savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn’t see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn’t interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn’t all romantic. I didn’t have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends’ rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn’t have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can’t capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it’s likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn’t know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple’s current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I’m pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn’t been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn’t even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor’s code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you’d have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I’m fine now.

This was the closest I’ve been to facing death, and I hope it’s the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960’s, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.” It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much.

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