Thoughts.com Blogs - Live Like You Were Dying?

View Blog

Live Like You Were Dying?

I'm not a real big country music guy, but I really like Tim McGraw's song "Live Like You Were Dying." That makes me question if it is really possible to live life like you're dying or what that really means. Do you live selfishly if you live like you're dying?

I guess if a doctor told me I was dying - after getting past the initial depression - my thoughts would be on how my family would get by after I was gone. Who would take care of my wife and step daughter? Who would make sure the baby had everything she needed?

Of course there are a lot of things I would like to do before I die. There are a lot of things that cost money - I want to watch a ball game at Yankee Stadium, I want to take a month and just drive anywhere, I want to see the Grand Canyon, I want to look up my roots in Italy, I want to spend time at the beach, I want to live without calanders or clocks.

There are other things I want to do but I don't because they would hurt people. For those who have been following my story you know just what I mean. I want N to know how much I love her. I want to be happy without worrying about long-term regret, the past, the future, or anything else.

But I couldn't saddle my family with that debt. I couldn't saddle them with that hurt. In the movie "Shawshank Redemption" Andy Dufrain tells Red, "Sometimes you gotta get busy livin' or you gotta get busy dyin'." What am I doing? Life is not a movie but I am not a saint. I want to live but hurting my wife would feel like dying. What is there to do?