Are we living under a cloud of deception? Is the pretense of ‘immortality’ serving us? Can we really be happy with newer stuff? With the latest apps? Or flitting from one trend to the next? Having more friends on FaceBook?
Not embracing our shared mortality for even a moment may cause us to stray from the truth. All experience, no matter how profound, is temporary. So how can we know that we are not deceiving ourselves? What is mortality anyway?
Unfortunately, Merriam-Webster is not all that helpful – ‘the quality or state of being mortal’. Being mortal means being subject to death, to the temporariness of our condition – at any time, in any moment. Nothing stays the same. Thoughts come and go. Feelings, no matter how intense, arise and cease (eventually). Our friends morph into our enemies – or vice versa. Even the idea that this is a sad state of affairs will pass. We are blessed with continuous opportunities to develop appreciation.
Perhaps getting used to this reality now is good practice for the seemingly enormous change that comes when it is time to give up our body…. this mortal existence.