Sadly, the will to live - and live well - isn't always ours to choose

Life expectancy in any given country says a lot about how its society values, supports and nurtures its people

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Before you were born, you were dead - no one we can imagine wasn’t void of feeling, of thought, of senses, existing only in a state of nothingness, inside a silent void.

After death, we're all headed to that same insensate, unconscious destination of non-being, properly referred to as inexistence. I think this is reason enough to make the most of the short time - a little more than half a century for most of us - that we get to spend on this planet as cognisant, conscious beings.

But certain groups of our species, guided by religious belief and hoped-for after-life destinations, may hold back and decide to live guardedly, as they await a paradise they're taught is just beyond the grave. Whether this gives them comfort or not, it is their absolute right.

But for those who acknowledge that this might be a one-off stab at living, there's an urgency to live the half-century we've got fully: to love, dance, fall, then get up; for this is, much more than just living, a unique experience. As Samuel Beckett advised us: “Ever tried? Ever failed? No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” We get one shot at being alive.