Saturday, September 24, 2011

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.

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