Immortalizing Life Lessons

Gillette Safety Razor (Photo credit: lokarta)

Macintosh (Photo credit: Marcin Wichary)

Aza Raskin recently wrote a beautiful piece for Fast Company on a gift his father (Jef Raskin, known for inventing the Macintosh) presented to him shortly before his death. The gift from Jef, who passed away in 2005 from pancreatic cancer, was a vintage safety razor; to the non-designer, this may sound odd, but its significance is perfectly clear to Aza. The razor, which “takes a flat blade and arches it under a metal shield,” is “the kind of clear insight for which all designers and inventors strive: beauty in turning constraints into advantages.”

The razor represents not only ideals of design, but a perspective on life:

“That razor is a message, rendered in steel and wood, about an incorporeal way of thought. That was my father’s final gift to me: A way of looking at the world through the lens of playful questioning, which reveals more than just an answer.”

Be sure to read Aza’s full post here, and see these stories of loss on SevenPonds:

• Remembering My Father
• Thinking Positively