candle in the wind

Something that is particularly vulnerable, weak, fragile, or precarious and likely to fail, perish, or be eliminated at any moment. The revolutionaries' bid for freedom is but a candle in the wind at this point, likely to be crushed by the dictator's regime. We all like to think we'll live forever, but we are really just candles in the wind. I think he would have appreciated his time in college more, had he recognized it for the candle in the wind that such ephemeral things are.