Isn't it good to die young!

I always wanted to die at forty. Well at least till I was forty. I was reminded of this today when I heard about a former colleague who had fallen dead all of a sudden from a heart attack. At thirty five he was definitely too young to die. This is the third such death I have heard of this year. The first thing which struck me was how vulnerable we all are and that if it could happen to him it could definitely happen to me.
I was not close to LR neither did I admire him or was inspired by him. But in his death I have new respect for him. I see that he had impacted a lot of people positively and that their was a genuine outpouring of grief. This was the first time that someone on my face book had passed away. And it was eerie to scroll down his page and pass from the condolence messages to updates by him from a few days back. As someone said only the good die young.
But it still made me wonder or is it that when the young die they are upheld as good automatically in our society hungry for a good story. Isn't it to go out with a bang or in a blaze of glory as bon jovi wailed instead of fading away. Well I for one always wanted to go while I am on top. Of course unlike one of my cousins who did so quite literally as he decided to bid good bye to the world in the arms of his mistress. I can still remember all of us with wry faces at the funeral telling one another he came and went at the same time. Now back to the more serious subject matter. I wonder what it is like to die? It scares me. I would like to know what it feels like. This has resulted in a somewhat morbid fascination with near death experience.
Anyway it was sad a young life was snuffed so early. Also it made me more conscious of the fact that I too maintain a similar lifestyle like my friend did. And a similar fate might await me too. Even though it might not be a bad thing the first thing I did after hearing this shocking news was sneak into the gym for an extra session of cardio and heave a sigh of relief that 60 is the new 40.