While listening to the lyrics of a song “Live like you were dying”, the following interview with a hockey player from the past, came back to me. The player was being interviewed after he recovered from an injury that cost him his left eye. The reporter asked if he realized what had happened at the moment it happened and what was he thinking at the time. The player told the reporter:
I was on a breakaway, I felt the opponent’s stick bounce up and it caught me under my left arm and the tip got me in my left eye. From the pain, the force, the blood… I knew I would lose the eye. In a split second I realized, this was my last shift and I would never play hockey again. I could fall to the ice, draw a penalty, and get escorted off the ice to the clinic, never to return…. or… I could score a goal, and skate off the ice with my stick in the air, hands over my head, and still never play hockey again. I wanted to end my career on a goal. Even though everything was blurry, I turned on the afterburners, skated as hard as I could, gave the goalie the best move I could and blasted a rocket into the net. My career was cut short, but I skated off the ice satisfied, with my hands in the air, a victor.
The reporter than asked if he had any regrets, and the player then answered in this (imho, amazingly insightful) sentence:
My only regret was that I did not play every shift, of every game, when I had two eyes, like I did during those few seconds when I played with only one eye.
Imagine what it would be like to kiss your spouse, every time, like this was going to be the last kiss. To make love, like this was going to be the last time you get to make love. To take out the garbage, like this was the last time they would ever ask you to do it. What kindness would you show your spouse, your children, your friends, your business associates, if this was your last chance to show them kindness.
What is your opinion about “living life as if you were dying” ?
