Maybe most of us find life precious because the thought that sooner or later it ends is never far from us. We are like visitors to a Renaissance chapel looking at remarkable painted canvases on the walls as the lighting timer we activated ticks away. We enjoy the interval of sweet light allotted to us before the darkness envelops us again. Just as darkness makes light precious, frailty and mortality increase the value of our time under the sun. If we agree that life is important, then thinking as we go through it is the basic tribute we owe it. It also happens to be the golden way to the good life—the kind of life in which happiness blooms. To order P.M. Forni's The Thinking Life, please click here.
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