Once More to the Lake, by E. B. White is a descriptive instructional tale, almost a parable, about how we as human beings squander some of the most precious moments of our lives.
One set of readers of this essay should be a young married couple just beginning their lives together. Innocently and naively convinced that newlywed bliss and love alone will carry them through whatever life throws at them. They should glean from this essay that life will happen and the years will swiftly pass by. They should immediately decide to set goals for their future and develop a strategy on achieving them. This will help them to avoid some of the regrets that the father in the essay seems to reflect on.
The next set of readers should be the 10 to 15 year married with children couple who feels they are trapped in the rat-race with no breathing room to spare. With the husband who is convinced that he has to take that extra shift of overtime or that extra business trip to provide the material things for his family. Learning from this essay how the father remembers the special feelings about being with his father, not necessarily how luxurious and expensive things were.
The next set of readers should be the age of the father in the story and older who can communicate to younger people about not wasting the most precious years of their family's lives trying to provide things for them instead of providing themselves.
So many times older people will tell you that they spent so much time earning a living that they failed to live a meaningful life. He who dies with the most toys is still dead. It is without a doubt important and meaningful to work hard and earn money to provide for your family financially. It is also imperative for a husband and wife to exemplify a loving compatible partnership that provides a loving secure environment for children to observe and emulate. The most important thing the writer is trying to communicate is that life is short and if you do not plan your time wisely, with those who are most important to you, that you will lose the opportunity forever.