You know that line? Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans. It’s been attributed to a number of people but it seems to have stuck with John Lennon. Whoever said it first (?), it raises another question. Which event is life: your plans or what happens to them? Of course, in the event of a fatal accident or a long-term illness, that’s life or the dearth of it (the death of you?) But your plans can go awry with pleasant incidents: a party, an unexpected encounter with an old friend, happy news (see The Upside column in the ManchesterGuardian), a birthday. Case in point: yesterday was my son Matt’s birthday.
I planned for it, still planning today . My grandchildren (Matt’s nieces and nephews, and my great grandchildren, i.e., his great niece and great nephew) are coming for a birthday tea party this afternoon. I have planned for it (Dufflet cake and champagne) it and I trust it’s going to happen.
But on February 7 last year, Matt slipped on the ice at work (he is a buggy gopher) and broke his ankle badly (2 hours surgery, two months in rehab, still doing physio therapy, and he walks with a limp, but he still pushes grocery carts). That accident changed our lives for the rest of the year, my annus horribilis, aggravated by my fall ten days later resulting in a broken wrist and a lot of delay writing my new book with one finger. I’m not being nostalgic, more like rueful as I write about yesterday and the last year.
Quote Investigator: “John Lennon did compose a song containing this saying and released it in 1980. The song was called “Beautiful Boy” or “Darling Boy” and it was part of the album “Double Fantasy”. Lennon wrote the lyrics about his experiences with his son Sean whose mother is Yoko Ono. In 2012 YouTube had a streamable version of the song, and the phrase could be heard at 2 minutes 16 seconds into the track which had a total length of 4 minutes 12 seconds. Lennon sang the following:
Before you cross the street take my hand.
Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.
But the general expression can be traced back more than two decades before this time. The first known appearance was in an issue of Reader’s Digest magazine dated January 1957. The statement was printed together with nine other unrelated sayings in a section called “Quotable Quotes” [RDAS]:
Allen Saunders: Life is what happens to us while we are making other plans.
—Publishers Syndicate”(Google)
Well, as you-know-who said, tomorrow is another day.
The trouble is, it’s already tomorrow.