Songfacts®:

• This song begins with a child being born. As the song goes on, the child grows into a man who has a child of his own. The man is seeing himself in his grave with people talking at his funeral (in the song you can hear people talking in the background). The music begins to fade away and all of a sudden the music starts up again, which shows that the man was just dreaming his death. He gets a new perspective and wonders why anyone would take life for granted. The song stresses the importance of living your life to the fullest: spending your "living days well." >>

  Suggestion credit:
  Mike - Newtown, CT
• The voices heard during the instrumental section are those of band and others playing ping-pong at Steve Lillywhite's house. Lillywhite was the producer on Crash. >>

  Suggestion credit:
  Bobby - Pittsburgh, PA
• At a concert in June 1996, Matthews introduced this by saying: "Hey, this is a song that sings about the hopes that when we all get to the end of our lives that we'll feel pretty good about what we did, so don't compromise yourself."
• Matthews' appreciation for life comes from seeing his loved ones' lives tragically cut short. When he was 10, he lost his father to cancer and, in 1994, his sister Anne was killed by her husband in a murder-suicide.