“Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow.”
Nov. 17, 2011
By now, I guess the whole world knows these were Steve Jobs’ last words. What follows is my thank-you note to my friend Hilde – our families were and still remain best friends, when our husbands were working together, she and I used to have lunch with the guys in a fun little restaurant nearby – and she sent me a clipping on Jobs:
Thanks for your card – and the article on Jobs’ bout with cancer. Yes, I definitely had a sense of déjà vu, since that’s how Gordon’s time down here also ended. For some reason it set me thinking about the apple with the “byte” out of it – in all I have seen written on Steve Jobs, I haven’t seen anything on any definitive “significance” of the symbol which nevertheless is Apple’s definitive trademark! I think Jobs most likely just didn’t want to be confined to the limitations of Christianity as he encountered it. Which really fits into the scene, since I don’t know of any other contemporary American who constitutes a more striking mélange of the best and the boldest aspirations toward the pinnacle of created intelligence and beauty available to us through God the Word incarnate in our fleshly nature!
And, of course, as I thought of Gordon, I thought also of Richard – because I had such a nice talk with him when I called to talk to you but you weren’t home --- and shortly after that his time here on earth ended, and on Gordon’s birthday!
I thought of writing to you but didn’t get around to it right away, and then the following morning, I read of Steve Jobs’ “last words”:
“With his family surrounding him, Simpson [his sister] said, Jobs' last words were: ‘Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow.’ Steve Jobs' sister: 'Death didn't happen to Steve, he achieved it.'”
by Helena DeMoura, CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/30/us/steve-jobs-eulogy/?hpt=us_t3
We could say the same of both Gordon and Richard, although they didn’t articulate their – I’m not going to say their “last impressions” because they were more properly “transitory” impressions as they transited from their transitory, earthly, lifestyle to the more permanent one!
Gordon, shortly after the operation which was for him the definitive indication that this illness was terminal, woke up one morning telling us of his marvelous dream of standing before the gates of heaven which he said found more beautiful than anything he ever had seen – or every would see!! At the time I thought, that second impression would before long be superseded – but I held my peace. After about 6 months during which the warm and supportive intimacy of our family grew apace with Gordon’s increasing weakness, the day came when, as I was reading to him, whenever he was conscious, the service of prayers for “those whose souls are departing from their bodies” – which he found tremendously consoling, saying yes, yes, as the prayers articulated just what he was experiencing, then reduced to mumbling his grateful assent, then to just nodding then just blinking his eyes, finally to just a little space of peaceful quiet almost like sleep – he suddenly rose straight upright, his gaze of transfixed wonder drawn as if magnetized to the ikons I had set up for him, of heaven as described in the Apocalypse and of Christ the Savior! For a moment he radiated in that resplendence – then gently he dropped back and left us for another realm. I have never been so much at peace in my whole life.
It was your daughter Catherine, Hilde, who was Richard’s confidante as he moved on, and told us of the dream he had of 3 men gathered around a table – his father, your father, the third place unfilled as yet – waiting for him. It was the tableau of the Holy Trinity, so fixed in our consciousness as Rublev “wrote” it – for ikons are not “paintings”, but “Theology/Holy Scripture writ in color”!
So I’m sure the All Holy Three in One found supremely gratifying Steve Jobs’
“Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow.”
As for the apple with the “byte” in – or, rather, taken out of it, I refer everyone to something I published when Metropolitan Paul, my Spiritual Father, was serving here in the USA, so it was written in his spirit and has his blessing on it. You can find it on my web site, "http://www.mamaleh-larisa.com". Click on the rightmost panel or gallery – both are named “Mamaleh Larisa” – and find it at the bottom of the page with the Burning Bush ikon, “Sin, Confession, and the Immaculate Conception: An Orthodox Perspective” – or if you are too impatient to stroll the galleries, you can just key in:
"http://www.mamaleh-larisa.com/yogandme.html"
Enjoy!
