The reason people find it so hard to be happy is that they always see the past better than it was, the present worse than it is, and the future less resolved than it will be.

Marcel Pagnol

My relationship with my father is preoccupying my thinking at the moment. He’s unwell and waiting for a heart bypass operation, which has caused a lot of reflection. One of the things that’s clear about my Dad, is that his thoughts are predominantly in the past. He’s long been unhappy in the present and sceptical about the future.

What saddens me especially is how for the last twenty-five years my Dad has thought almost exclusively about pensions. Glorifying yesteryear overshadowed the every day, while he slogged away in a detrimental job whose real reward could only come tomorrow.

Now the end is nigh, and the present is all we’re left with. It’s all we ever truly have – make the best of it.