What's Good About Today, with Chris Cochran

selflessness, courage and unconditional love for all. And I really believe we're gonna learn a lot more about his son and a lot more about Chris and next little time we have here together. And so welcome to the show, Chris.

presence. But Christian was an amazing individual, just from the day he was born to the moment he took his last breath. And I was with him at both events. Since he was a child, he was so compassionate for others. It was an unusual trait. Even before 13 months, he was speaking in full sentences, which was pretty unusual. I knew this kid was destined for something special. He had this incredible ability to see the

goodness in everything. Even when he was little, he was a very we called him Mr. Comforter all the time, because he could comfort us. Even as adults, he could make us feel good. He did that for other children. I remember the first day of school

getting on the bus. You know, kids clamor they want to get on the bus, and we get the best seat they want to be in, whatever with their best friend Christian, was always making sure he was the last person on the bus, because he wanted everyone to be happy, to have what they wanted on that bus. And as a young adult, he was incredibly talented, the prom king in school, a big school here in Pennsylvania, I'm in Pittsburgh, he was the lead actor in every drama. He was in

every play and every musical. And he had been in a movie and a Batman movie. He was kind of on track to do the things he wanted he was going to head to, like graduate from college, and he felt a pain in his back. We had just come back from a vacation out in Vegas, Christmas in 2020, and we had a beautiful time as a family, and this pain just came up and just thought it was normally. I was a healthy, young, good looking boy. Eventually the pain became so so bad that we had a blood test.

Told to go see a CT scan. This was during covid, so I was asked to go meet at the doctor's office. Six people came in white coats. Their faces were covered with masks. I could only see their eyes, but I knew at that moment, I kept reassuring Christian as we arrived, it's going to be okay. Things gonna

be fine. We'll be back to our regular life. And they immediately came in and said, Christian, you have a grapefruit size tumor on your liver at this time, we didn't know exactly what it was at that moment, what kind of cancer, bile duct cancer, it's a less than 1% chance of of living. You're lucky if you live six months. So Christian was given a terminal diagnosis. I remember as parents, we were heartbroken, and we said we're so sorry, Christian that you have to deal

with this. He said, It's okay. I would never want this on anyone else. I want this to be my burden. He said, I am so grateful to you guys. He He never complained one time. Moment he got his diagnosis to the day he took his last breath. He never complained one time. All we cared about was everyone else around him and how the lead a good life for the remainder of

his life. That's why the title of the book is, what's good about today is because when we would cry and we would say, you know how horrible this was for us and him and the family, he would say, No, what's good about today? And it was his daily reminder about all the good, all the beauty you can find in a day. Even in the worst of circumstances, when things are not going your way, you can find nuggets of goodness and beauty

in every single day. So it was, you know, obviously a tough day, a tough year, a tough every day, but through all that, that's where we found the the strength of Christian, you know, he, he exemplified this incredible strength and goodness that to me, yeah, I had to, that's why I had to tell the story, believe it or not, the Foundation came up prior to Christian's death, because I knew he was going to pass.

help others, so he said, it'd be great if we could, you. Know, build something to help those in areas where there's poverty areas things that Christian cared about his legacy, and it was called the Christian Cochrane legacy fund through the Pittsburgh Foundation, was built based on Christian's ideals of where he wanted to help people. It was, you know, low income areas, the kids who were struggling in school. We get to Animal Resources. We give to parks and natural resources.

There's all kinds of camps we give to. It was Christian's idea. Christian came to us with that idea and said, you know, this is what I'd like to do. We do a tremendous amount of work in something called Yasu with young adult survivors united. That's where a lot of the effort goes in to help those young adults who are stricken with cancer. It's an underserved area, but those young adults who are really just they came out of their their shell, they're ready to take on the world, none of

the sudden, they get hit with this. And what I found is that those individuals have less resources, right? They're no longer attached to their parents, they're on their own. They don't have the money Christian would give to everybody. So, you know, we would, we only have so many resources that we can give to but you know, we're also implementing what's good about today in lesson plans, which I

think, to me, is extraordinary in terms of the Legacy Fund. And what we're trying to do is to help spread how kids can come in in the morning. You know, what's good about today? They write down what's good about their today. At the end of the day, they erase that next day, they start over. But it allows teachers to identify those kids who are having problems in their

day and those who are doing you know really well. But it also gives kids an idea of what you know look there is lots of bright things in the day.

is so important. The stillness of life can really help you refocus your energy. Help you refocus how you approach everyone. Can help you, how you react to someone. It's truly remarkable. That's how Christian lived it. Christian never stopped living nothing stopped. He got a full time job. We knew what we were up against, but Christian wanted to serve a an example to everyone. Now he did it for, I think, four months

before his body started to take a toll on him. He loved the idea that we could venture into areas to try to solve this problem for others, right? He was part of his journey. We always say, make someone laugh, someone happy, make someone smile. Christian was always about those three things.

getting that language out what's good about today? I believe that, out of every person, could simply wake up in the day, the end of the day, and say, what's good about today, and really take the time for yourself and think that out and realize that the sun's on my face. I'm able to take a long walk, but can't take a long walk. I interacted with my son, my daughter, my wife or a friend. There are so many things on their day that are good, they far outweigh the bad. And so I think that's just

a mind shift. You know, the interesting thing is, Christian had he didn't have to do list. He had to love list. And he kept those that's, that's how he managed his his life, and who you love. I think that's a lot all the way of the the foundation is set up too, is we're not, they're not so much to do's. They're all about to loves. And how do we put more love out there to places and help?

They're really not that in control, right? So Christian's passing and what he had to go through, and what we learned, and for me, what I learned is I can't control that, but I. Practically, yes, gratitude is great. How do we put that in practice? And so that's why, you know, the book is, of course, what's good about today, a purpose driven life. The book, in the many ways, is a roadmap to how to lead a purposely

driven life. I'm still trying to lead that purposely driven life, but I think once we live with acceptance, we strive for optimism. Remain humble, even in the face of despair. We are lunging forward. We are actually moving to better ground. I think when you check on others, you nurture others, other human connections, stay living mindfully all the time. And I think a big thing is, strive for empathy. You know, honor your

connections, show love, open your heart. Christian knowledge used to say to me, most of all, don't take life too seriously. And so there's plenty of things, I think. The other thing negative thoughts come into our brain all the time. I'm sure they do for you too. And I, and I still have those things. I have flashbacks to these particular moments, whether it was at the end of Christian's life, all kinds of different things in between which he was surrounded by his loved ones in

his house together. I karate chop those things. I karate chop everything that comes into my head that puts me in a place that's negativity. That's the point of finding purpose too, right? It's, it's we're all seeking to find purpose in this life, right? Some of us haven't found it yet. We're, you know, we're on that, that constant marigold will of just trying to

make things happen and so. But I think pausing is important, because pausing really allows me, really, to meet life with grace and see beyond pain and find gratitude in the present. That's space you can you can genuinely find really, really great things. I can get down, but I get back up really fast. So, you know, I think it's, it's a matter of pushing yourself through these things and understanding, of course, to have be grateful, of course, but pausing to understand in your daily life.

love and the gratitude, right? And so I think creating random acts of kindness, whether it's to strangers, loved ones, that's, I think, what legacy is all about.

You know, we have wristbands that say, what's good about today, we have stickers, things like that the way, I just get them. And I want people to have them, you know, I want them to constantly be reminded of and they go to festivals and they set up stands on their own. I'm not even a part of this. So there's people who, who, who are doing things with that message on their own, which is great. I'm all for it. So to me, that's all part of the legacy it's about and it's to build a

legacy. You got to connect the dots. You got to connect the dots to other human beings. Because without connecting to humans, you're not going to be able to to generate the opportunities to talk to more people talk about the good things you can do. So I think legacy, to me, is just that spreading the message love. Love is first and foremost, how do you extend that love to so many and share goodness, and how they can share goodness as well?

all the goodness that. We're doing events that we're involved in, where we sponsor, where we try to get out and see the community. So to me, we're still in the grass. You know, Christian just passed away three years ago, so it's still very raw, in a way, you're still just trying to get her name out there to do the good works. And certainly, if your audience, if there's anyone, thinks that this will be a good message, certainly reach out to me, and you can do that personally, anytime, anytime.

and I wrote what I was feeling, good thoughts, bad thoughts. It was a way for me to escape many times these were going on between midnight and four o'clock in the morning. I didn't think I slept much during that first year at all, and it was just this whirlwind of trying, of course, to save Christian's life, first and foremost, because I learned so much in that process of RNAs and DNAs and sequencings and how to, you know, figure out how we can solve this, this terrible

cancer. It literally went back to about a year and a half ago, taking those journals, compiling them, reviewing them, which was not a fun task for me, because it was bringing back everything to life, how I felt during those times. But I knew I had to do it. I knew that it was important to bring purpose to Christian's passing. And then I decided to tell a story. And there's people have asked me. They said, What's your book about? What's this all

about? Is it your son die in a kiss? No, no, see, this is a book of love. It is a love story. That's what this book is about. Is about telling people that, yes, it's you can be resilient. One universal thing that we all deal with is grief. It's universal. We're all going to experience it. We're all going to be one day at those those moments in our life. But it really is, how do you navigate life so that you know you can, you can come out on the other side, and, you know,

leading this purposely driven life? So the book has just been a cathartic process, and ultimately, following the guidelines of Christian. I didn't write this book. Christian is always the star. He always was the star. I always think of myself in the background, kind of just painting a picture and looking at things. And so I tell the story that's inspired by Christian as how he solved the world. I think that's how I envisioned writing the book.

That's how I wanted people to see it, but I certainly wanted them to come away with hope, gratitude and a lot of love.