30,000 Days

For most people, 30,000 days is a long life. Think about it, you'll go through 30,000 days, one-by-one, and then its over (we'll save the "what happens to you after you die" chat for another time). You'll wake up 30,000 times ( or thereabouts) and you'll go to sleep 30,001 times.

Now lets break that down. For the first 7,000 days you are young and, hopefully, care-free. But many of us struggle with our youth. What are we going to do with our life? Will I ever meet the perfect mate? Blah Blah Blah. For the most part, however, I'd like to think most of us just enjoyed being young.

Then at the end, lets say our last 7,000 days, we're old. Things don't work as well as they used to. We've seen and heard quite a bit, so we are a little jaded and almost always stuck in our ways. Look at old grandpa sittin' in his chair watching The Price is Right. Nothing seems new and exciting anymore. Lets face it, in some ways, a human is like a car. The best miles are the first 7,000. The worst miles are the last 7,000.

Now in between we work. We work hard because we are told that you need to save for retirement. You need to work to have health care insurance, pay for the kids college and the mortgage and other things as well, but I'd like to focus on this saving for retirement ridiculousness. You are telling me that I should work away in my prime days (16,000 days) so I'll have money for the worst 7,000 days of my life? A time when I don't really want to do much. Maybe a little travel. A little gardening perhaps. Not too much though, that back isn't what it used to be. And those hips, always sore. So we are supposed to, in a way, sacrifice our happiness during our prime 16,000 days so we can have money when the 'ol bod is starting to break down? I hear of kids in their early twenties putting money away for retirement. Putting trips and fun on hold so they can have money during their broken down years. What the . .? Are they crazy?

Let me offer an alternative. I'll call it the John Mellencamp father's world view (since I heard that this is what he preached to his son). We try as hard as we can to enjoy every day that we can. Of course, not every day is a good day. But we make it our first priority to enjoy each and every day to the maximum extent possible. Then, on our 30,000 day, we can look back and say; "You know. I had good days 26,500 of those 30,000 days. That's not bad." Bonk. Out go the lights. If you stick to the popular model, you'd be lucky to score a 10,000 because you may be doing a job you don't like for most of you're life, then you'll be too old to max out on enjoyment in those later days.

Now I'm not saying that you shouldn't be "responsible." That you shouldn't strive hard to reach heights. You should. But I think in doing so, many have taken their eye off the ball. If you're not having fun, what's the point?

So come on every one, lets try to get that score up. You can do it. Lets start right now. What did you do that was fun today?