A friend recently told me about how he reassessed his life while recuperating from an operation. I could identify with his revelations. A hospital ceiling can evoke a lot of insight. It is akin to Samuel Johnson's famous observation:
“Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.”
Mortality has a serious deadline and once you get to an age where you are beyond youth's automatic assumption of good health you discover that a completely different mode of planning kicks in. The shadows do indeed lengthen. Even if you hope to get another 15, 20 or even 25 years the diminishing ranks of your high school reunions declare that you are fortunate to have received what you've gotten.
So what does this mean? No matter how old or young you may be, get your priorities in order and never assume that time is on your side.
Time is a trickster. Outfox it with action.
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