fun with semantics, or my problem with kris allen's 'live like we're dying'

So I just heard Kris Allen's 'Live Like We're Dying' (a cover of The Script's song) on the radio for the first time today. Although I'm very behind the times, I'm glad I heard this song at all because there's something fundamentally wrong with it.

Now, I get what the song's trying to convey, that we should be seizing the day and making the most of our lives. Great, touching, inspiring, whatever. That's fine. The problem, though, lies with the title and oft-repeated phrase, 'Live Like We're Dying': what exactly should we be living like we're dying from? Old age? Cancer? Gunshot wound? No matter what, it seems like a pretty pathetic existence, one in which we spend a good 60 years bed-ridden or moaning in pain or drugged up or barely conscious.

(("Ahh, this is the life."))
img from: www.poddys.com

Or, if you'd like to get more philosophical about it, aren't we all dying? Death is inevitable, and every second we live brings us another second closer to the grave. In that case, if we're to live like we're dying, we should be able to simply carry on as usual. I think I'll tinker with that phrase a bit, and say that we should 'live like we're living.' At least then we won't have 'dying' constantly on our minds - after all, that's kind of morbid, isn't it?

No, I say we keep at our lives as we go through the motions for another day and take another step forward in our slow, laborious march towards death.