‘Well, my time is nearly done but I’ve had a good innings’, ‘I think I’ve had a good life’, ‘I’ve tried my best, do you think I’ve had a good life?’
Recently a conversation with an elderly patient got me thinking. She was quite old with lots of chronic medical conditions, and whilst chatting she turned to me and was very honest- ‘I haven’t got long left, but I’ve had a good life’.
It’s a conversation I’ve had before, but once again I was challenged. It’s a phrase we commonly use but what makes someone have a ‘good life’ or a ‘good innings’?
Is it based on achievements, life span, health, family, reputation or something else?
Would you say that a terminal 30 year old Nobel prize winner had had a ‘good innings’? What about a homeless, unemployed 90 year old? I guess it comes down to what you value most in life. The more I think about it, the more I am challenged now- what would enable you to say you lived a ‘good life’, and how does your behaviour now reflect that?
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