A 100% Mortality Rate

It may be a difficult thing to accept because so many of us are at a place where our mortality is only theoretical, but it would be foolish not to try to understand what it means. One day you will end. In the words of James Fowler, “This body, this mind, this lived and living myth… will cease to be. The tide of life that propels me with such force will cease and I – this “I” taken so much for granted by “me” – will no longer walk this earth.”.

I know we are all somehow vaguely aware on an intellectual level that many of the things we care about on a day to day basis won’t really matter in the bigger picture of our life as a whole. We wouldn’t die to do many of the things we do while we’re dying. Think about that sentence. You wouldn’t die to do most of what you’re doing. But you’re dying while you do it. Shouldn’t we make ourselves more aware of what this might mean?

Most of the people who find out that they only have a fixed amount of time left to live were already dying before they were told this sad news. A process had already begun and had existed for some time. And they only thing they lost was their illusion that they had a lot more time. I remember reading an article in a newspaper about a woman receiving cancer treatment and the reporter asked her, “What’s it like to live every day knowing that you’re dying?” She responded with a question of her own, “What’s it like to live every day thinking that you’re not?”

It’s no secret that it’s purpose that matters most. The secret is to find a way to find a way to feel the need to act on it now. The secret is to find a way to turn down the volume on that deep and pervading sense that we will all, always have “more time”.

So what do you stand for? What do you want your life’s energy converted into? The steps we take to please ourselves turn our life’s energy into something that is within us – a sensation which turns into a memory – and it evaporates with us, leaving no residue in it’s wake. It could be said of many people after they are gone that they, “Lived for a while and pleased themselves…”

Purpose begins at the point where our life’s energy is used to touch someone else. When you touch someone else you’ve made a “noise” outside yourself – you have created something that can outlast you. In a very real way, you transcend your own mortality. As I said this past Sunday, when it comes to us and our so-called needs, maybe the key is not so much how do we meet them – because this is a daunting task and may not even be possible because it seems that they never end. Maybe the issue is how do we forget them, instead, because the effect is the same (to listen in visit our podcast online). A need met and a need forgotten both go to the same place in our minds where we no longer feel them.

It’s a brilliant challenge from an ancient teacher: use what time you have to touch someone else and you may just find that you set yourself free along the way.

Just a thought.

I hope to see you Sunday and I hope you bring someone with you.

I hope to see you there,

CSW