I wrote another eulogy this week, a tradition I don’t enjoy getting any better at. But it made me think about the good fortune I’ve had seeing the world, with so many amazing characters alongside. Cue the James Blunt lyric “you’re getting older, and your journey’s been… etched on your skin” which is… oh so accurate.

When I look at the scars and etches, I ask “is that the last time I will…”

• climb Huana in Machu Pichu in the pouring rain
• dive with a hundred hammerheads in the Galapagos
• play beach volleyball on Ipanema
• walk the great bamboo forests of Kamakura
• scale the crusader walls at Crak de Chevalliere
• witness a great Migration in Masai Mara
• got to close with Nile Crocs at Sobek’s Temple
• kneel next to a thousand followers at Umayyad Mosque
• dine with a big Prince in his Saudi Palace
• scramble up the promontory above Aqaba
• feel the morning dew of the olives trees in the Garden of Gethsemane
• swing onto a Street Car for a ride up up Knob Hill
• paddle across the Sound in a Kayak
• see a 10:30 sunset in Deauville
• breath in air pockets 50 feet deep off Barbados
• play with an octopus in Red Sea
• narrowly escape Monkeys in Asir
• surf and snowboard the same day in Dunedin

The list goes on. And the true answer is, I’ll never know what adventures I have left. But post pandemic, I’m finding myself thinking of last times of a less extreme kind, and yearn for them as much or more…

• The last time I’ll send a silly meme to a friend about mankind’s futility
• The last time I will have an elderberry pie
• The last child I will see born
• The last time I will part with a love
• The last time I will teach a teen to drive
• The last time I will solve one of the world problems with a bit of technology
• The last time I will see a favorite band in concert
• The last time I held my mom
• The last time I’ll play against my son in Rugby
• The last time I’ll see my daughter in a play
• The last time I’ll sit and read a speech to my Dad

When I think about these, I realize it’s really up to the universe whether there will be a next time. It’s up to me to cherish every time like it’s the last.

But I’ll keep a list of next times, just in case.

~

Brad Paisley’s List

Using a fake ID at a college bar
Getting caught with a girl in the backseat of a car
Running out on the field for the senior game wearing number 17
There’s a last time for everything

Like a George Strait cassette in a Pontiac
I tell ’em Super Cuts, let’s leave it long in the back
Wearing the tux at a high school gym
And she’s wearing your class ring
There’s a last time for everything

Last call, last chance
Last song, last dance
Sometimes you just don’t know when that’s gonna be
Hold me baby, give me a kiss
Like tonight is all there is
‘Cause there’s a last time for everything

Throwing the ball with the first dog you ever had
Spending all day on the lake with your grandad
Watching Glenn Frey sing “Already Gone” at the Forum in L.A.
There’s a last time for everything

Last call, last chance
Last song, last dance
Sometimes you just don’t know when that’s gonna be
Hold me baby, give me a kiss
Like tonight is all there is
‘Cause there’s a last time for everything

Kissing goodbye on her porch and driving away
Introducing her as your fiancee
Getting woke up at 5:00 a.m. to see if Santa came
There’s a last time for everything

Biscuits and gravy at momma’s house
(Last time for everything)
Spring break on a fold out coach
(Last time for everything)
Little Jimmy on the stage
(Last time for everything)
Hearing Prince sing “Purple Rain”
(Last time for everything)
(Last time for everything)