The line used in the title is quoted from Bob Dylan's Emotionally Yours, Bob Dylan. Taken out of context here, the line reminds me of an observation that Theophrastus (c 371 - 287 BCE) is said to have made in his advanced years. Seated in his garden, perhaps, he is reported to have said, and, I paraphrase here, that his life was like a dream; his active lengthy life appeared to him to have passed so rapidly, that he could not explain how he had become decrepit when he still vividly recalled his youthful agility of body and mind. A follower of Aristotle, who selected him to take charge of the master's Peripatetic school located in Athens, also taught there. He is best known for botanical studies which survive, but his extensive corpus on other topics has not. Of course he could explain, but it was the evanescent aspect of life that Theophrastus alluded to.
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