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“Don’t Forget, You’re Going to Die”
How to find happiness in the unlikeliest of places.
“Don’t forget, you’re going to die” is a message I see pop-up on my phone five times per day.
This happy little reminder is sent from an app called WeCroak, which encourages the Bhutanese practice of contemplating death every day.
Does that kind of thinking seem morbid to you? Does it seem needlessly negative? Does it give you anxiety?
Many philosophies encourage the practice of regularly thinking about death. Stoicism and Buddhism are among them.
As well, a widely-held celebration in the Americas — Dia de Muertos (English: Day of the Dead) — is dedicated to pondering the thin line separating life from death and to commemorating family and friends that have died.
The question is, should we spend our precious time thinking about such a depressing topic as death? Isn’t the topic a black hole we should all try to avoid? Won’t it just lead to our suffering?
Maybe, but maybe not. The fact is, death is all around us. That we and everyone we know and love will die is about as simple and straight-forward a truth as there is. When has denying or ignoring a truth about life ever paid off for you?
