From Marathons to the Dalai Lama: My Luck Continues

I got an email today letting me know that my name had been drawn to receive a ticket to attend "Harry's Last Lecture on a Meaningful Life" with the Dalai Lama.  I'd already paid for tickets to his two other talks, "The Centrality of Compassion in Human Life and Society" and "The Scientific Explorations of Compassion and Altruism Conference."  But, I was surprised to learn today that I'd gotten into the smaller lecture as well.  The lectures and conference will take place over two days in the middle of October.

Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote the following line in book The Idiot:

Compassion is the chief and perhaps the only law of being for all mankind. 

This single sentence moved me when I first read it, and I hope to emerge from these two days ever more driven towards compassion.

I will also be lucky enough to have Alex join me at the conference on the second day.  We were able to get him tickets despite him not being a Stanford student.