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 hero chose to spend his last days or his last hours. I speak,
of 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 beings, what regrets? 
Sometimes I have 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 the
constant panorama of more days and months and years to come.
There are those, of course, who would adopt the Epicurean motto
of "Eat, drink, and be merry". But most people would be chastened
by the certainty of impending death. 
In stories the doomed 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 of the meaning of life and its permanent