Why is it many of us think we can do–and need to do–more than is possible in a given amount of time? Do our internal clocks run faster than those of most aging people? Or are older people just more realistic than we are?…and/or better at judging time due to more years of experience?

Yes, this is my way of explaining that my holiday-card-sending is still in progress. But it’s part of an overarching issue: a friend has aptly named it “compressed time”–too much to do and too little time to do it in. I don’t think I speak only for myself and my friend when I say many of us are afflicted with this.

It may explain one of the reasons younger people can seem rude to older people, whose metabolisms seem to run at a slower pace. In this coming Saturday’s blog I am going to discuss a sad, but true story, reported by someone I’ve known for decades. It seems to have been driven by a caring adult daughter’s feeling of “compressed time.” You can judge for yourself. In any event, it’s an instructive story that will be a gift to two generations if it saves any other caring adult children and their adult parents from such a situation.

I could not find a place for the story in my book. But it needs to be told. The consequences of not knowing this story are too great, in my opinion. So, until Saturday when all of my cards will be in the mail, think about “compressed time” and feel free to share your thoughts for this blog.