You Are Going to Die Soon

For a long time, I had a post-it note on my bathroom mirror on which I had written: “You are going to die soon.” I had put it there after reading a quote by Steve Jobs expressing a similar sentiment. “Soon,” of course, is a relative term. Statistically, it’s most likely that I’ll be around for another 44 years (I checked the actuarial tables), but if I thought that the end of the world was going to happen in 44 years, would I be justified in saying that it’s going to happen soon? I think that I would, and that will indeed be the end of the world for me. The note disappeared the last time I moved, but I still remember it every time I look in the bathroom mirror in the morning and at night before I go to bed, and my thoughts return to it throughout the day. Others who had seen my note found it morbid; I always found it inspirational. Regardless of what happens after, I know that that much at least is true, and it’s shown its value as a compass for directing my actions and decisions.

But while I don’t base my decisions on it (or believe that I don’t), I nevertheless often contemplate what might happen afterwards. This question lies at the heart of religion: what happens after we die?