24 hours, 1440 minutes, 86400 seconds

“Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.” - Thomas Jefferson

Correct, of course. If you do it today you will have your tomorrow free-to do (or not to) whatever it pleases you.

It reminds me of the way “Travels with my aunt” ends. Henry is a recently retired bank manager in his 60s. At his mother’s funeral he meets his aunt Augusta whom he hasn’t seen since he’s been just a little boy. It doesn’t take long until he’s completely devoured by his aunt’s world of adventures, shady affairs and dubious characters. To cut the long (and enchanting and very funny) story short Henry and aunt Augusta end up in Paraguay and he’s facing the choice to either return to his neat Southwood house and his dahlia garden where, as Augusta puts it “you will think how every day you are getting a little closer to death. It will stand there as close as the bedroom wall. And you’ll become more and more afraid of the wall because nothing can prevent you coming nearer and nearer to it”, or stay with her in Paraguay where “tomorrow you may be shot in the street by a policeman because you haven’t understood his words or a man may knife you because he thinks you’re acting in a superior way. But you won’t be edging day by day across to any last wall. The wall will find you of its own accord without your help, and every day you live will seem to you a kind of victory.” Henry makes up his mind: “I have been happy but I have been so bored for so long.”

Some consideration of the consequences before acting is by all means healthy; to think first “What’s the worst that can happen?” instead of jumping in blindfolded. 

Well, sometimes the worst is nothing to happen at all.

A cougar wannabe

One moment in time

9 pm last night I was walking home after a mild and rather ceremonial celebration to mark the end of a dreadful week. Sometimes you feel so worn out that your sense of reality takes a day off too…which is not necessarily bad; it makes even trivial look new. The setting felt so surreal-to be amidst people and yet alone with my thoughts while “Still” gently caressed my ears; as if I could walk to the edge of the earth. A moment perfect in its fleetingness. 

  

And All that Has Been

So today turns out to be the International Nine Inch Nails Holiday. Surely I don’t need a special day to pay tribute to The Band but I’ve been looking for an excuse to post this song and the occasion seems to fit in just right:

"The gathering of flowers"

I feel purified when I listen to it; I want to swear I will never again do anything I’d be ashamed of (and I do); it makes me want to be someone worthy of that beauty.