Live Like You Were Dying

02/06/2009

The other day I was driving to work and scanning through local radio stations.  I live in West Virginia, so radio programming here consists of NPR, religious content, ancient rock and, of course, lots of country.  Now don’t get your drawers in wad.  I am not slamming any genre of music.  I enjoy them all, even Jesus radio, once in a while.  This day I hit on a station just in time to hear “Live Like You Were Dying” by Tim McGraw.  Knowing there are no accidents, this one clearly struck a note.

Just a few days prior to this I heard of the death of the father of a guy I work with.  This one was tragic.  This man was, as the story goes, out jogging, tripped and fell, striking his head.  Ignoring the headache, he subsequently fell into a coma and passed away.

Moments before McGraw’s song began to play I was thinking about this death and thought about the man.  As the words of the song settled into my ears, I wondered if he lived his life this way.  I hope he did. 

It is so easy to live the mundane life, to take the low road, to keep your expectations low.  But to live like you were dying, it is even easier.  Like the Nike line, Just Do It.  Smile a lot, hug freely, never lie, always love, forgive and forget, pay it forward, dance naked in your back yard.  Well, maybe the last one goes aboard a bit, but I think you may get the message I am trying to convey.  We never know when the end might come, but I know when it is my turn people will say, “That SOB did it right.”

Enough pontification, I am off to ride a bull name Fu Man Chu, and go Sky Diving and Rocky Mountain Climbing.

And that is all I have to say about that…