Notes on AgingEly Cathedral People are always telling me to live each day as though it may be my last. I’m never sure...

Notes on AgingEly Cathedral People are always telling me to live each day as though it may be my last. I’m never sure what to do with this. Write a will? Don’t buy in bulk? Take no meetings? Another old friend told me that past the age of 75 we’re living on borrowed time. Now that I’m 85, I have a better idea: Live each day as though it’s your first. Think of a child and her curiosity about everything. Every day is new. What a joyous way to live. As the late 18th century poet Kobayashi Issa wrote about turning 50, “From now on, / It’s all clear profit, / every sky.“ It’s all clear profit. Oscar Wilde said that our senses are worth twice as much when we visit a foreign country. I’ve found that turning 85 is much the same. Every day is a new arrival.At my age, I know that I won’t live to see my three-year-old granddaughter flourish, but I have seen the promise in her.The builders who dug the footings for Ely Cathedral in 1081 CE knew they wouldn’t live to see it finished two centuries…