“Warning: dates in calendar are closer than they appear.”
—Bumper sticker
I used to have an old episode of Peanuts tacked to the wall in my office. It showed Snoopy talking with a fruit fly, whose life span is only 24 hours and who confides his one regret: “I wish I knew at nine o’clock what I know now.”
He doesn’t specify what it is that he knows now, but it’s a safe bet it included—was perhaps even provoked by—the understanding that time is limited. And should you be lucky enough to apprehend this truth at an early rather than late hour, it can profoundly effect all the hours that follow. The way we live our days, after all, author Annie Dillard once said, is the way we live our lives.