943“Because we don't know when we will die, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well, Peter says in his audio clip. "Yet everything happens only a certain number of times, and a very small number really.

"How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, some afternoon that is so deeply part of your being that you can't even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four or five times more, perhaps not even that. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps 20. And yet it all seems limitless.”

This is a passage from The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles, and the inspiration for Peter's SOTM. He wrote: “When I first heard these words in the 1990 film of The Sheltering Sky, I stopped in my tracks.

"It's natural to go through life without confronting your mortality, but every now and again a reminder can do wonders for your outlook.

"Bowles tackles the familiar theme of Carpe Diem with such simple eloquence that his words have stuck to me like glue ever since. It makes me cherish every day of my son's childhood even more.”