The last line of the obituary for actor James Rebhorn, 65, reads, “He was a lucky man in every way.” Rebhorn, a veteran Hollywood actor who starred in numerous movies and TV shows, such as “Meet the Parents,” “Homeland,” “White Collar” and “Law & Order,” died March 21 after a lengthy battle with cancer.

Until last week, when I heard about his death on the news, I had no idea who Rebhorn was. Surprisingly, while he clearly had acted for years, I had never heard of him, although I have seen some of his movies. In spite of his lack of a personal spotlight, however, and in spite of his battle with melanoma, he died feeling “lucky…in every way.”

That kind of story inspires and humbles me. How can a man who had a wonderful family and a successful career pen his own obituary at such a young age and still consider himself lucky?

Rebhorn was diagnosed with his disease in 1992. He spent a third of his life fighting a war he knew he probably wouldn’t win, against the most dangerous type of skin cancer.

Yet he didn’t decide to simply wait around until it killed him. He didn’t choose to complain and ask, “Why me?” Instead, he chose to make the most of his last years, surrounding himself with the people and things that he loved, and continuing to act, because that’s what he loved to do.

I’m sure he had some of “those days.” The ones where nothing seemed to go right, when all he probably wanted was to sit and cry about the years he would never get to experience. But at the end of it all, that’s not what he chose to focus on.

Unlike Rebhorn, most of us don’t have a terminal disease. But we all have a fatal diagnosis in that we are alive, and one day, we’ll die. Most of us don’t like to dwell on the topic of death; it’s not typically a happy subject.

What you should dwell on is life. Live it.