and yes "I am not dying so have to spend my time at work" is a lame excuse in relation.
Let me ask you something. Whom do you respect?
This is ALS. A progressive, multiple-year disease. Via Wikipedia[1]: Death usually occurs within two to five years of diagnosis.
I've met plenty of rational dying people. Except when it comes on extremely quickly, most everyone I've encountered or heard about has been more rational than the people around them, not the reverse. People don't suddenly become invalids when they have to face their own mortality.
[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amyotrophic_lateral_sclerosis#D...
Are you "not dying"? I ask because I've never met anyone who wasn't dying. Yes, most of us don't have a good idea as to what the attending MD will blame or when, but nevertheless, the vast majority of us are dying and know it.
Like contributing to community projects.
My point is more that people go all hero-worshipy when someone does something cool when they are dying, and take everything out of context and set them on a pedestal and it's ludicrous. All rationality goes out the window. "... they all suddenly seem pretty lame" is a flawed way of looking at the world, a loss of context, and it helps nobody.