Long life isn’t the only goal. Full, kind and honest beats long and bitter.

Duration is the easiest thing to measure about a life and far from the most important. Years spent guarded, resentful and careful are still years, while plenty of shorter lives have been better in every way the people who were there would recognise. Quality is harder to count, which is why counting tends to drift toward length.

Ask what you would want said about how you were, rather than how long you lasted. Then take one of those words and hold it against this week: were you kind, were you honest, did you turn up. Those are answerable today.