Being Mortal: Illness, Medicine and What Matters in the End (Wellcome Collection)

by Atul Gawande

how we seek to spend our time may depend on how much time we perceive ourselves to have.

As our time winds down, we all seek comfort in simple pleasures—companionship, everyday routines, the taste of good food, the warmth of sunlight on our faces. We become less interested in the rewards of achieving and accumulating, and more interested in the rewards of simply being. Yet while we may feel less ambitious, we also become concerned for our legacy. And we have a deep need to identify purposes outside ourselves that make living feel meaningful and worthwhile.