The last words (or final fabricated wisdom) of Steve Jobs is, in my negligible opinion, quite beautiful. Yes, in my wholly unqualified judgment, the alleged utterance expresses an idea beautiful enough to take the silver medal in Mr. Jobs most revolutionary innovations, eclipsed only by the ubiquitous lower case "i".
Let's review this genuinely apocryphal message falsely attributed to Steve Jobs, although his family who were present for Steve's valedictory vocalisation refute he spoke the upcoming sentiment, I urge them to reconsider their position under the guidance of qualified legal counsel because it's a valuable legacy.
I, for two*, believe Steve would have given us a single departing squeeze of the index finger if pressed for validity of content in lieu of authorship and assuming he could claim the work as proprietary intellectual property. I’m being respectfully, magnanimously sarcastic, of course, which is difficult to do. So, without further ado, let's review the departing dictation which Steve Job's didn't say...
(Quotation marks are used figuratively and as comic props)
“I have come to the pinnacle of success in business. In the eyes of others, my life has been the symbol of success. However, apart from work, I have little joy. Finally, my wealth is simply a fact to which I am accustomed. At this time, lying on the hospital bed and remembering all my life, I realize that all the accolades and riches of which I was once so proud, have become insignificant with my imminent death. In the dark, when I look at green lights, of the equipment for artificial respiration and feel the buzz of their mechanical sounds, I can feel the breath of my approaching death looming over me. Only now do I understand that once you accumulate enough money for the rest of your life, you have to pursue objectives that are not related to wealth. It should be something more important: For example, stories of love, art, dreams of my childhood. No, stop pursuing wealth, it can only make a person into a twisted being, just like me.”
Profound, no? I want those to be my last words, especially the “twisted being” reference. We always look kindly on the dying who are charmingly self-effacing, like Gollum's death scene should have been. We like to believe our heroes, whom Steve is to many, were human too, and through this brief moment of frail humanity we too can gain access to all that made them more.
Whomever the real author is, I believe they were projecting a human moment into Steve that, “Oh, wow. Oh, wow. Oh, wow” cannot relate (Steve Job's actual last words. A little disappointing, I know, but stick with me here). The prevaricating author wrote eulogy, not history. When judged on content rather than origin, the words construct a spectacular and philosophically enlightening passage, befitting Steve’s passage to the Hereafter and our passage into the hero made human that we might share in his glory, if only for a frail, fleeting moment.
To that counterfeiting copyist, I say ,"Bravo, you brilliant, lying bastard! Yes, Bravo! You made the human race look far more insightful and likable than we truly are… for a moment. But what a grand moment it was. Thank you for paying attention and remembering, “I don’t care if it’s true, just make it a good story.”
* - I'm assuming the fiction writer of funeral fraudulence and I are in agreement.
