Nor is it proper for us to complain; because, in
complaining we would, in justice, have to define such of
our terms as "misfortune" and "enjoyment".
Would you describe the ultimate in inevitable
misfortune as being death-that of a loved one, or yourself?
Do you think of life as the ticking of a clock which grows
louder with each passing day until it becomes the tolling
of a bell? You don't have to ask for whom the bell tolls.
You know.
Yet, even as the ticking goes on, you must con-
sider the words of Swift, who wrote: "It is impossible that
anything so natural, so necessary, and so universal as death,
should ever have been designed by Providence as an evil
to mankind."
The ticking reminds us, too, of the words of
an unknown author:
"The clock of life is wound but once,
And no one has the power
To tell just when the hands will stop,
At late or early hour.
"NOW is the only time you own
Live, love, toil with a will;
Place no faith in tomorrow, for
The clock may then be still."
You cannot control the length of your life, but
you can control its other dimensions: its breadth, its depth,
and its height. It is within these dimensions that you live
your unrepeatable miracle, for that's what life is-a miracle
... and unrepeatable.