Dá fhad é an lá tiocfaidh an tráthnóna.

However long the day, the evening will come.

I've never been quite sure if this Irish proverb referrs to the end of a good day or a bad day. Is the promised evening a respite or threat? I've always thought that the eve of our life would be a respite. I had always envisioned our evening years to be the "come grow old with me, the best is yet to be" kind but more and more these days the coming eve seems to be one of hopeless despair. His angst over The Time Traverler's Wife and his pronoucement during that book discussion group that we are on the down side of our lives, that the best isn't " yet to be " but that it has been.