After 40 (old age for most of man's history), one should strive to be more or less packed and ready to go were the end call to come. - Alain de Botton

Why, then, if expensive things cannot bring us remarkable joy, are we so powerfully drawn to them?

Most of us stand poised at the edge of brilliance, haunted by the knowledge of our proximity, yet still demonstrably on the wrong side of the line, our dealings with reality undermined by a range of minor yet critical psychological flaws (a little too much optimism, an unprocessed rebelliousness, a fatal impatience or sentimentality). We are like an exquisite high-speed aircraft which for lack of a tiny part is left stranded beside the runway, rendered slower than a tractor or bicycle.

Forgiveness requires a sense that bad behaviour is a sign of suffering rather than malice.