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Life Keeps Getting in the Way of Death
A Year in the Death 3/10/21
When I began this series back on January 1, I knew it would be impossible for me to post an article everyday. What I didn’t realize was just how difficult it would be simply to reflect on death everyday.
But I hadn’t counted on life continually getting in the way of death.
I should have expected this.
After all, my leadership and organizational-development consulting business was showing signs of recovering from the 2020 COVID-19 economic slowdown. I was training hard for a number of spring ultra marathons I had registered for. The work on the leadership book I’ve been promising myself to write for years was finally going well. And the typical day-to-day distractions, such as a dead vehicle battery, showed no indications of slowing down.
However, the biggest impediment to this year-long exercise in contemplating death — especially my own — has been my inherent human nature. For as much as I tell myself that I am different than the billions of other homo sapiens currently roaming the Earth, the fact is that I, too, find it convenient to ignore my own mortality.
Yes, I still faithfully engage in my daily Stoic practices, which often focus on the subject of death. But I’ve noticed it’s been far easier to focus that work on…