you are going to die

I am not a computer nerd, or a tech nerd of any sort, and I don't give a whit for Steve Jobs one way or another, but I did like this excerpt from his commencement speech at Stanford:

When I was 17 I read a quote that went something like "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself, "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "no" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something. Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important thing I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life, because almost everything--all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure--these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

It is refreshingly earnest--a quality not in fashion in our culture, I know. I am, in my own way, in the habit of doing what Jobs suggests (remembering that I'll be dead soon), but it is a difficult standard to meet. Delayed gratification and preparation for the future are important for our continued survival, but neither would matter much if we really knew that our death was imminent. Of course we don't actually know, maybe our death is imminent. And even if it's not immediately on the horizon it's not that far off. Perhaps the problem isn't that we will die, but that we live too long?