A lesson before dying...

So this older gentleman and his wife came in yesterday.He looked like a picture of health:naturally tan skin, beautiful grey hair, and straight, bright teeth. He looked like several pilots I've seen in my life. His wife was slim and silent,but content looking.
He shipped his package and somewhere in the course of a few minutes slipped in that he was a cancer patient and a former pilot.
I was taken aback and instantly thought of Prof. Randy Paush of Last Lecture fame.
The gentleman then shared a little red book that he had written full of his thoughts on life and what's important.
I had to fight back tears when he shared that he and his wife had been married for 42 years.
Anyway, a constant theme I read in books by people close to death is perspective.
Mr. Tobias, Randy Pausch and others reiterate the importance of figuring out what's significant and living life accordingly. It's such a great reminder, even if sobering, that life is not only so short, but not gauranteed for very long. Why waste time being unhappy when you can be? Why waste time doing stuff you don't want to (within reason) when you can live the live you imagine, instead of imagining it?
Futhermore knowing how precious life is what do I look like caring about stupid stuff?
Raggedy.
I try to do that,but I know I could do a better job. The most important things to me right now are *enjoying my time with my awesome family before I leave for France *keeping in touch with the people I love (not trying to, but doing it)*enjoying my summer as much as I can.*trying to get through my epic book and movie list*continuing my writing
Making beaucoup money is not on there.My parents are kind of annoying me suggesting, with the best of intentions, that I work like a slave in Texas prior to Juneteenth so that I have money when i get to France. But I know that I lived on a lot lot less when I was in Bordeaux and so know that I can live within and even beneath my means.
I really just want to be happy and am naive enough to think that I can do so without a lot of extra things in my life.
Except for my books :)