‘The unexamined life is not
worth living’ – Socrates.
When I was no more than twelve or thirteen the feeling grew in me that it was important not simply to live life day by day but somehow to give greater meaning to it by recording what was happening every one of those days and by planning how I should shape and what I should make of my life in the future.
This may seem strange in one so young but it was so. It could very well be viewed as an impulse which would stunt and spoil the spontaneous enjoyment of a young boy’s life which should be free of such careworn concerns. To a certain extent this was so in the time spent planning what I should be doing and achieving in the next month, year, five years, longer, rather than getting on with seizing the day and every precious hour in it. Ambition in one so young is a stone in the heart. Yet, even in this respect,
