You’ll Never be Perfect, You’re Going to Die, and That’s Okay

Now that’s out of the way, what are you going to do with the time you have?

Photo by Claude Piché on Unsplash

I don’t know a lot.

I don’t know why the universe was created or by whom, if anyone. I don’t know what my roommate’s cat thinks about me when I step out of the shower and run to my room, having forgotten a towel. I don’t know what a whip or a nae nae is. I don’t know a more relevant Gen Z trend to reference because if I did, then I’d know it. You know?

In fact, I don’t know much about life, the universe, and everything other than the answer is 42. So instead, I’ll focus on the two things I know for certain:

1. I will never be a perfect person.
2. I will die.

Is that negative self-talk? Am I being a bad practitioner of mindfulness? No. In fact, I’d say the acknowledgment of our mortality is intrinsically tied to the core concepts of mindfulness. But death is in the future and mindfulness asks us to be in the present — how could the two be intertwined?

If you know that you’re going to die one day in the future, it forces you to consider where you are in the present. As Marcus Aurelius said, “Stop whatever you’re doing for a moment and ask yourself: ‘Am I afraid of death…