Tomorrow

"Life is very long, unless it is not."

Is there better tautology than this one? 

That's what I came across reading Gabrielle Zevin's novel Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow.

Sadly, I started the first chapter of this book after paying last respects to a much-loved nephrologist. Everyone was in tears during the funeral ceremony, and I was no different.

We listened to the eulogy for this stoic doctor, and appreciated that the lived experience of illness can be short but meaningful. The greatest obstacle to living - I think the Roman philosopher Seneca sums this up perfectly - is expectation which hangs upon tomorrow and wastes today. My teacher didn't lose the battle with cancer. He beat cancer by how he lived, why he lived, and in the manner in which he lived.