by Jimmy Nightingale

Created on: February 11, 2008   Last Updated: December 14, 2009

I think the late, great Warren Zevon said it best when he was asked about this very subject. It was during an interview with David Letterman after Zevon had been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. He was asked if there was anything he understood now, after being confronted by his own mortality, that he didn't before. He said, "Just how much you're supposed to enjoy every sandwich".

'Enjoy every sandwich' became the title of a tribute album to Zevon and I think those three words succinctly define the meaning of life.

Life is fleeting and our time on earth is the mere blink of an eye in the collective consciousness of the universe. Sounds impressively profound, doesn't it? Sorry, I was just being pompous. What I really mean, without the waffle, is that we're not given very long in the overall scheme of things and we shouldn't take that time for granted. Enjoy the ride, live life to the full and any number of metaphors that mean essentially the same thing.

Savour life.

Too many of us, myself included, grow up focused on what we want to be, striving to accumulate material wealth or even wishing our days away in the hope or fervent belief that tomorrow will be better that we forget to enjoy today. Harry Chapin's classic "Cats in the Cradle" tells the tale of a man who is too busy to enjoy the 'here and now' with his son. There is always an excuse why he can't be there for his son. Eventually, he reaches the point when we wants to spend time with him, only to learn that his son is now too pre-occupied with his own life to do so. The cycle perpetuates and we grow up teaching our own children to wish their lives away. Our children yearn to be older and we even tell our kids to "grow up". Instead we should be telling them just to enjoy being kids as they will grow up soon enough and it is perhaps better to let them enjoy this one and only relatively carefree time in their life.

When I was growing up in Sydney, my next door neighbour worked until he was 65. Never took a sick day or holiday during his 50 odd years with the same employer. When my father said to him that he should do some travelling or time off to do things with his family, he always said that he would have time enough when he retired. Sadly, he didn't get the time. Within a few short months of retiring, he died. All that good health he enjoyed during his working years disappeared. Lung cancer. If there was such a thing as reincarnation, I'm sure his priorities will be different next time around.

All we really need to do is think forward to when we are lying on our own death bed. Yes, a little grim, but just bear with me while I make a point. When you reflect on your life, of all the possible things you could regret, is the wish that you could have devoted more time to work going to be one of them? I don't think so. It will be things like places you didn't get to see, things you didn't do, spending more time with the people you love, accomplished personal goals (even if it is something as mundane as learning to play the guitar), maybe even things you wish you hadn't done or perhaps done differently. It won't be about work and you probably won't even think twice about all the money you have or the new super-humongous widescreen high definition television that you bought last month.

Enjoy every sandwich.

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