That’s why we all miss him: Steve Jobs produced technology that he believed in, but managed to convey that it was the product of his belief in himself, and in us. He made machines, but he never stopped struggling to shape the machine more than the machine shaped him. For all his optimism, for all his refusal to heed the lessons of the past in his attempt to write the lessons of the future, he also seemed to be fighting a deeply personal rearguard action — he was John Henry, if John Henry had decided to go ahead and invent the damn steam engine, instead of fighting vainly against it. We like to think that Steve Jobs’s fight was against death, and indeed while no one we know has lived like Steve Jobs, everyone we know should have the courage to die like him. But the fight he’ll be remembered for is the one he was fighting from the beginning — his fight against the ugly and inhuman aspects of the very world he helped create. We will miss him, but not because he was the first to stake his life on that battle. We will miss him because he might very well be the last.

Fifty-six years old is too young to lose somebody. Like many of you, cancer has touched my family - immediate and extended. And while so many are, like me, penning their own tributes to Jobs, let’s not forget our sadness will be felt much deeper and for a much longer time by his wife and their children. If anything, let’s hope today’s sad news is as much a renewal of the fight against cancer as it is a remembrance of a true pioneer.

Thank you, Steve.

Julie Fleshman of the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network said it well, of Jobs’ passing: “It is also a stunning reality that even those who have unlimited access to the highest level of care available cannot defeat this insidious disease.” Those of us who know and love people with this sad disease could see from Mr. Jobs extended periods of time off, and gaunt frame, that this was a man fighting for his life. I felt inspired to donate to the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, a truly wonderful resource that actively petitions our leaders to provide more money for research for this incredibly under-funded disease. If you want to donate too, you can! Just go here: http://www.pancan.org/index.php Donating there was something that I bought that I really love.