When It’s Gone, It’s Gone.

I have just finished reading Bob Mortimer’s autobiography “And Away…”.

I do love a good biography or autobiography. I’m fascinated by how people came to be where they are – the myriad of small decisions along the path of a life that lead to a certain place and time and outcome.

But whenever I finish reading one I am often left with a feeling of melancholy.

Regardless of whether or not the story ends with death or ends with a, “…and so ends that chapter of my life…” there is always an element of sadness for me that the story is told and what is done is in the past and gone.

Where the biography is a contemporary one, and where I can place myself in the timeline of the events of the authors life there is almost a sadness double whammy – not only at the fact that for the author what is gone is gone, but also a reminder that my own story is passing by too, and that the same applies to me.

But just as we often find inspiration in the uplifting stories of other people’s lives, the reminder that time passes serves as an inspiration to live our own lives to the fullest extent possible and to leave behind a story worthy of our having lived it.