What happiness should we find in reviewing the past, what regrets?
Sometimes I have thought it would be an excellent rule to live each day
as if we should die tomorrow.
Such an attitude would emphasize sharply the values of life.
We should live each day with a gentleness,
a vigor,
and a keenness of appreciation
which is often lost when time stretches before us
in the constant panorama of more days and months and years to come.
There are those, of course,
who would adopt the epicurean motto of “Eat, drink, and be merry"
most people would be chastened by the certainty of impending death.
Most of us take life for granted.
We know that one day we must die,
but usually we picture that day as far in the future,
when we are in buoyant health,
death is all but unimaginable.
We seldom think of it.
The days stretch out in an endless vista.