Gratitude

Being old enough to die is an achievement, not a defeat, and the freedom it brings is worth celebrating.

The driven businessman has an intimation of mortality and decides to devote the rest of his life to helping the poor. Some of the most successful people I ever met were written off by their teachers at school and told they would never amount to anything. We constantly defy predictions. This is something science has not yet explained and perhaps nev

The project had something useful about it for his state of mind after his wife died. On the occasion of his previous birthday, he had written me a thank-you note for noticing it, saying that at eighty "there is little to look forward to ... but I have much to look backward on. And, in a way, that's consolation."