everything in life is only... for now?

But as with many aphorisms, that's easy to say and harder to do. Where do you draw the line between living for today, and planning for tomorrow? When it comes to holding onto things (time, money, people), how tight is too tight?

I'm a firm believer that "if you fail to plan, you plan to fail" but at the same time that "change is inevitable"... you never know when something totally unexpected will happen to make you regret missing that day at the ____, not calling ____, not going that extra mile.

E.g. I think most people fear the loss of health, esp as they grow older (and ailments become real and more burdensome), and that fear manifests in several ways. I for one intensely feel the need to go places, have new experiences, try everything once. Ironically, this is sometimes at the expense of a regular diet and a good night's sleep here and there (much to my parents' grief).

Then again there's another view that precisely because we have everything to lose, we have to store up now and be prepared for unforeseen circumstances; hence those extra lessons in things we might never need to know, savings accounts, investments, and insurance.

It's a fine, fine line...