OH WOW. OH WOW. OH WOW.

These were the last words spoken by Steve Jobs as he lay on his deathbed.

We have this information thanks to his sister, Mona Simpson. She shared it in a memorial service at Stanford University on October 16, 11 days after her brother’s death.

The six monosyllables are capitalized here, as they were in the text distributed to the media. But I would have capitalized them anyway because I consider them so meaningful.

Mona Simpson is a novelist. Since she deals with fictional events, I could imagine her making up his brother’s last words. Or, at least, reshaping them.

However, they seem to me expressive enough of the man that I want to believe he really said them just before dying.

Simpson said of him at that stage: “He seemed to be climbing.”

Going further, she added: “But with that will, that work ethic, that strength, there was also sweet Steve’s capacity for wonderment, the artist’s belief in the ideal, the still more beautiful later.”

For the mystics, ecstasy has meant the direct experience of a tremendous and overwhelming reality. Ecstasy, in its best sense, means a state beyond ordinary human experience, full of awe and wonder.

This experience involves an altered state of consciousness whereby we see or hear as we do not in ordinary life. His sister apparently considered her brother to be feeling this way as his death approached.

I regard Steve’s last words as a contemporary expression of ecstasy. The word “wow” is how many people now express awe.

In the various tributes paid to Steve Jobs by those who knew him, you can find many who emphasize that his insistence on technological brilliance was not enough; products had also to be beautiful. More like an artist than a mere entrepreneur, he made sure his company’s products pleased his customers’ esthetic sense.

I have seen this attitude reflected at the Apple store in my city. People of all ages, including me, show themselves delighted at the computers, IPads, and other inventions that call Steve Jobs their author. People clearly buy them, not just for their utility, but also for their elegance.

Ever since I read the last words of Steve Jobs, I have been obsessed with their appropriateness. I would like to think that many of my family members and friends have had something of that same experience when they came to die.

And I would hope that my own death, whenever it comes, will feature ecstasy of some sort. I might not use the word “wow” but I would welcome the wow experience. Even if it is invisible to others, it still seems to me highly desirable.

I have never been able to believe that death means the end of human existence. Rather, I believe that we are altogether too valuable for it all to come to nothing. As I grow older, the more I feel the authenticity of this way of looking at the death of human beings.

In any case, I persist in valuing Steve’s last words and using them to remind myself of the wonder that lies in the human adventure. “Wow” (or its equivalent) should not be saved for the death experience but rather deserves frequent use for much else in life.

The mystery of aging merits awe in itself. I like to regard the changes in my body and soul as part of a wondrous reality, though I do not welcome everything that experience contains.

OH WOW, said singly or in its trifold version is worth thinking about. And, even more, making it a part of life.