Listening to an old Bowie song (or track as they used to be called before the Apple Collective) I noticed that David was singing that we have five years. Did Placebo have this song in mind when they wrote much more recently that we have twenty years ? Anyway it just made me think about how much time I myself might have left. I have some friends who got cancer quite recently and obviously this focused their minds on how much time is left. I think that although when that happens people appreciate their remaining time more intensely, yet it is always too little. Some people say that you should live every day as if it is your last. However I think that Bowie was on to something. Maybe living one’s life as if there are five years left is the right balance, the Buddhist middle way to finding the right mix of hedonism and immediacy balanced with the fact that we do usually wake up still alive tomorrow.