A Local Tribute and Heartfelt Good-bye to a National Hero

I admit I was a bit conflicted as I sat to write my blog this morning. Given the fact the people take the time to read what I write, I owe them quality, good content and want to add some humor every chance I get. Upon reflection, writing about good news for Tucson and paying tribute to a national hero who died this week seems like the right thing to do.

Tucson Electric Power was recognized for being among the nation's top 10 "most solar integrated utilities" in the first ranking of its kind by the Solar Electric Power Association. TEP earned its recognition for both its company owned installations as well as the photovoltaic systems that customers have installed on their rooftops through TEP's Sunshare program. It gets even better - they randed 5th for their company-owned capacity and 3rd on a per customer basis. So TEP is walking the walk and local Tucson citizens are stepping up and helping to make Tucson an emerging leader in the area of alternative energy. Congratulations!

In terms of this tribute, I didn't feel as though I could write anything today without paying tribute to Randy Pausch. Randy is the professor from Carnegie-Mellon University who turned his death into a story that uplifted the hearts of millions of Americans.

When Randy found out he had just months to live, he gave a humorous and life-affirming lecture to 400 of his students and colleagues. Thanks to the Internet, the story spread across thousands of websites. During these past months, he also wrote a book called "The Last Lecture" which he saw as a gift to his three young children. "How do you get 30 years of parenting into three months? You write it down is what you do." And so he did.

What impact Randy had on so many of us was to stop and think about how very precious each and every day of life is, that we all need to make sure our priorities, especially in terms of our children,are straight and to live life purposefully. So I take this opportunity to honor Randy Pausch and to join the millions of people around the world he want to say thank you. You are a true hero.