Don’t wait till it’s too late. Read Our Town by Thornton Wilder and learn Emily’s wisdom after she returns as a ghost. This advice to seize life, to be present to it in both its wonder and gloom, to see importance, value and purpose in the quotidian while we are still alive is among many pearls of wisdom in This article appears in December 10 2007.

Patricia A. Kossmann is literary editor of America.