A sub-contractor carpenter told his contractor-boss, whom he’d worked for since he was an apprentice, that he was ready to retire. The contractor was sorry to see him go but asked him, as a personal favour, to stay on long enough to build one more house. The carpenter agreed but his heart was not in it and he did a shoddy job, saving money wherever he could by using inferior materials. When the house was complete, and the contractor came to inspect it, he handed the front door key to the carpenter and said, ‘Here; it’s all yours. It’s my gift to you.’ The carpenter was shocked. If only he’d known he was building his own retirement house he would have taken much more care. And so it is with us. We are the builders of our lives, in this life and beyond; and we’ll have to live eternally with what we’ve built.