Imagine our lives if when we woke up, one of the first thoughts we had were
“Today is the day I will die.”
Would you lay in your warm, comfortable bed and sleep in?
Would you think back on the bad moments with bitterness?
Would you yell and curse when someone cut you off?
No, no, and no — I don’t think you would.
We would leap out of bed, ready for each day as it would be our last.
Every bite of food would be better than the last. Everything would be a “last meal.”
Each person we met would feel like a blessing of an interaction, realizing it could be our last.
If we realized upon waking up that any given day could be our last, we would live with meaning every single moment.
And why not?
Isn’t it true? Every day very well could be our last? I think so.
Instead of grumbling about responsibilities, rolling over and falling back asleep, we ought to remember to ask ourselves:
“What if today is the day? Today I will choke, or be hit by a car, or my body will rebel and strike me dead with an aneurysm. Today is the day.”
Follow for daily philosophical meditations.
These are distillations from my coming book “YouDaimonia: the Ancient Philosophy of Human Flourishing.”