All of us have read thrilling stories in which the hero had only a limited and specified time to live. Sometimes it was as long as a year, sometimes as short as 24 hours. But always we were interested in discovering just how the doomed man chose to live his last days or his last hours. I speak off course of free men who have a choice, not condemned criminals whose sphere of activities is strictly delimited. Such stories set us thinking, wondering what we should do under similar circumstances: what events, what experiences, what associations should we crowd into those last hours as mortal lives. What happiness should we find in reviewing the past, and what regrets.
Sometimes, I thought it would be an excellent rule to live each day as if we should die tomorrow. Such an attitude would emphasize sharply the values of life. We should live each day with gentleness, vigor, and a keenness of appreciation, which are often lost when time stretches before us in a constant panorama of more days and months and years to come. There are those off course who would adopt the epicurean motto of eat, drink and be merry. But most people would be chastened by the certainty of the impending death. In stories, the hero is usually saved at the last minute by some stroke of fortune. But almost always, his sense of values is changed. He becomes more appreciative to the meaning of live and its permanent spiritual values. It is been noted that those who live or have lived in the shadow of death always bring a mellow sweetness to everything they do.
Most of us, however, take life for granted. We know that one day we must die, but usually, we picture that day as long in the future. When we are in buoyant health, death is all but unimaginable. We seldom think of it. Days stretch out in an endless vista. So we go about our penny tasks, hardly aware of our listless attitude toward life. The same message, I am afraid, characterize the use of all our faculties and senses. Only the deaf appreciate hearing; only the blind realize the manifold blessings that lie in sight. Particularly, does this observation apply to those who have lost their sight and hearing in adult life; but those who never suffered the imperilment of sight or hearing seldom make the fullest use of these blessed faculties. Their eyes and ears take in all sights and sounds easily, without concentration and with little appreciation. It is the same old story of not being grateful for what we have until we lose it, of not being conscious of health until we are ill. I have often thought that it would be a blessing if each human being were stricken blind and deaf for a few days at sometime during their early adult life. Darkness would make him more appreciative of sight; silence would teach him the joys of sound.
