I'm a sucker for those great stand-bys of feature editors the world over - the questionnaire. The Guardian's magazine has one in which subjects are asked to specify the phrase or saying they most overuse. This set me thinking, writes Joe Breen. What would mine be?
Of course, there are no shortage of contenders, even after disallowing the most obvious for reasons of decency and delicacy. We all have little favourite phrases that act like our trademarks, too true, oh absolutely, that's amazing and the like.
However, I've noticed recently that I've taken to this profound rejoiner, "yeah, well, we only have one life", with disarming ease. What does it mean and from where did it spring?
As with many of my contemporaries raised in the "faith of our fathers (and mothers)" I have lost that particular plot. I like to think that there is a semblance of lingering spirituality or maybe it is just the remnants of maternal entreaties and dire clerical warnings that leave a small part of me still wondering is there something out there beyond all this. After all they think there may have been water on Mars so it not beyond the bounds of imagination that Heaven and Hell, or variations therein, await us when the grim reaper calls.
But realistically I think that my adoption of this statement of the obvious is confirmation that my inner self believes that A) this is most likely the whole game and B) that I'm heading for the second half of the second half, that is if I last the pace.
So if friends tell me they are thinking of leaving their jobs of 30 years standing to buy a B&B in downtown Tehran I'm the very man to give them succour and encouragement. "Oh absolutely, that's amazing, yeah, well, we only have one life..." I manage to resist the teeth-clenching "...this is not a rehearsal", but only just.
Seriously, time is a funny thing. Like money, the only time you really begin to notice it is when you start running out of it. And though in theory you can't buy time, there is little doubt that that is exactly what medical science is doing these days. So the average Joe or Josephine has X more years on this planet than did the generation before them. This all sounds fine, lots more time to explore those silent ambitions when the day comes to retire.
But the pensions crisis caused by weak stock markets the world over has drawn clouds over that sunny vista. The idea that perhaps you could walk away from the years of daily application with a spring in your step has been dealt a severe blow by the realisation that we will not be able to afford to do so. So people may have to work beyond their expected retirement age.
To the bean counters this makes sense. J Soap is a productive member of society, he/she is contributing to our collective wealth for longer and taking from it for a shorter time. Problem solved. Well, not exactly.
Today, the work environment is much changed from the past. The pace is faster, the pressure to succeed greater. There is a price to be paid for this frenetic activity. Some call it burnout. It's not that people consciously decide to go slower as the years mount, but the adrenalin doesn't pump as it once did. The promotions dry up as the ladder narrows. Ambition gives way to bitter experience. The energy that once seemed boundless is just no longer there. Folks get tired.
For companies this represents a real challenge. How can they motivate their staff to renew their commitment to the cause? How do they get people to go the extra mile when they are already running on empty?
For workers the question is equally as important. I don't believe anybody enjoys discovering that their work is not valued, that somehow the experience that they have spent a lifetime accruing is no longer important. People at work are no different to the rest of mankind: they need a "reason to believe" as the Tim Hardin song put it. And hanging around because the stock markets flopped is not one.
In addition, while the numbers employed might remain the same, all operations, from Civil Service to private enterprise, require a delicate balance of energy and experience. When one gets out of kilter with the other, the result can be serious. Played out across a whole economy, it could have very damaging consequences. Not only might we have unwilling hands still at the wheel, but those waiting to take over may be left kicking their heels.
Of course, there are those for whom retirement is a kind of death and so they hang on for dear life. To them this kind of forced extension would be manna from Heaven. It is hoped they are increasingly the exception and not the rule.
Work is not life and life is not work. At least it shouldn't be. Surely we have seen the unhappiness that comes with that kind of narrow view. Whether or not there is another life is a question of belief, but we owe it to ourselves to make the most of the one we were given.