Following convention

Tolstoy describes on the field of battle how Prince Andrew Bolkonski having been hit by a bullet is knocked to the ground. In his semi conscious state he sees the sky and rejoices at its pleasurable importance amongst the carnage.
How intent we are in our drive to fulfil the obligations we make for ourselves, forgetting the world around us and the tiny importance we play in the moment. We inflate our importance we consume our thoughts with the trivia of our actions and then we wonder when life draws to a close and our importance is taken up by others, how we suffer. If we were to arrive at the conclusion that life has no meaning other than the one we wish to place on it then we would be much more careful when we first make our choice.
Of course we really don't know anything other than the actual moment we live in. The past is past and the future unknown, only the moment we are dealing with is real. If that is the case why do we follow 'convention' since each moment is personal and unknowable to anyone else.
If what we are doing is being done because our mind had a moments presentment to do such a thing why cloud the mind with the absurdity of 'joined up thought', since in reality there are theoretically no joined up moments, only the one you are living in now.
Presumption makes fools of us all but without the assumption that there will be a tomorrow where do we stand as we reflect on how much we miss by not understanding our own impermanence. 

Of course there is the presentment that in old age, things we take for granted become difficult if not impossible. Cutting ones toenails, climbing up to reach for something, running after and catching that proverbial bus ! The things we take for granted. Perhaps it's the inevitability of our growing weakness which speeds up our grasping for each moment, to fulfil it with what ever, knowing it may well be our last.