Happy New Year.
It was a very clear, bright night.
I never make New Year resolutions because I rarely pay much attention to the passing of time. I studied Ancient History when I was 17/18 and two things impressed themselves upon me over and above the Greek and Roman history.
The first was that some thinkers feel modern, they feel as if you could walk right up to them shake their hand and sit down and have a meaningful conversation and in some notable cases, learn from them. As has been said before everyone who has ever lived has been modern, but some minds reach across the ages we like to delineate. They are few and all the more precious for that.
Secondly along with reading paleontology I realized that no matter how long we live our lives are but seconds, so what on Earth are we doing counting them out? It is all part of the fear of ageing and the loss of the energy of youth. And part of the problem with that is putting so much into our young years we actually notice it when we seize up more. That is why a life of mind has its attractions because as long as you keep thinking and do not suffer mental degeneration to any great extent, you can think up to the last of those few seconds.
Wisdom after all can only flow from thinking.