Ian at 90 – A summing-up

At 90 I am in overtime and a penalty shoot-out looms which I know I cannot win. The Socratic injunction, “The unexamined life is not worth living,” should never be ignored but, especially now, time must be found to review how you have spent the extra-ordinary gift of life.

Towards the end of his life the writer Somerset Maugham wrote a short book entitled Summing-Up. Everyone should seek to make an honest summing-up of how he or she has used the astonishing privilege of life. There may even be time to draw a few conclusions and make a few last-minute adjustments.