Now, "Extra Room" also applies to time,
trying to find a way to not be a slave of time,
trying to find a way to mount a resistance against it
from taking over.
And one way that is done is by trying to live every day as
if it's the last.
You've all been told that by authority figures.
So this works with that idea.
It's called a maxim.
"To live each day as if it might be the last"
is an injunction that Marcus Aurelius inscribed
in his journal to remind himself that he too, however,
privileged is mortal, that whatever
bounty is destined to reach him has reached him already
many times.
But if you take his maxim too literally
and devote your mornings to tinkering
with your will, your afternoons and evenings
to saying farewell to friends and family,
you'll come to regret it.
Soon your lawyer won't fit you into his schedule.
Soon your dear ones will hide in a closet
when they hear your heavy step on the porch,
and then your house will slide into disrepair.
If this is my last day, you'll say to yourself,
why waste time sealing drafts in the window frame
or cleaning gutters or patching the driveway?
If you don't want your heirs to curse the day you first
open Marcus's journals, take him simply
to mean you should find an hour each day to pay a debt
or forgive one, to write a letter of thanks or apology.
No shame in leaving behind some evidence you
were hoping to live beyond the moment.
No shame in a ticket to a concert seven months
off or better yet two tickets as if you
were hoping to meet by then someone who loved to join you.
Two seats near the front so you catch each note.