"Live every day as if it were your last"
So we're told. But if today were the last day of your life, would you actually:
-- Go to work?
-- Clean the house?
-- Do the dishes?
-- Pull the weeds?
-- Make the bed?
-- Pay your bills and taxes?
-- Save and invest your money?
The great thing about aphorisms is that they're easily understood and seem true. The bad thing about aphorisms is that they usually end up being too simple to be of any use.
Another bad thing about aphorisms: as I once read somewhere, "For every proverb, there is an equal but opposite proverb." (My favorite such pairing involves British currency: "Penny wise, pound foolish" versus "Mind the pence and the pounds will take care of themselves.")
With that in mind, isn't the whole point of the fable of the ant and the grasshopper that you shouldn't live every day as if it were your last?
As usual, if we make a more nuanced version of this injunction, it loses its oomph: "Live in such a manner that, when you're on your deathbed, you will not regret things undone." Which in turn reminds me of what my uncle Dan once said, that all advice boils down to either "Don't fuck up", or "Hey -- you fucked up."
-- Go to work?
-- Clean the house?
-- Do the dishes?
-- Pull the weeds?
-- Make the bed?
-- Pay your bills and taxes?
-- Save and invest your money?
The great thing about aphorisms is that they're easily understood and seem true. The bad thing about aphorisms is that they usually end up being too simple to be of any use.
Another bad thing about aphorisms: as I once read somewhere, "For every proverb, there is an equal but opposite proverb." (My favorite such pairing involves British currency: "Penny wise, pound foolish" versus "Mind the pence and the pounds will take care of themselves.")
With that in mind, isn't the whole point of the fable of the ant and the grasshopper that you shouldn't live every day as if it were your last?
As usual, if we make a more nuanced version of this injunction, it loses its oomph: "Live in such a manner that, when you're on your deathbed, you will not regret things undone." Which in turn reminds me of what my uncle Dan once said, that all advice boils down to either "Don't fuck up", or "Hey -- you fucked up."