We die

A friend sends us this, from a new business book called The Cluetrain Manifesto:

"We die.

"You will never hear those words spoken in a television ad. Yet this central fact of human existence colors our world and how we perceive ourselves within it.

"'Life is too short,' we say, and it is. Too short for office politics, for busywork and pointless paper chases, for jumping through hoops and covering our asses, for trying to please, to not offend, for constantly struggling to achieve some ever-receding definition of success. Too short as well for worrying whether we bought the right suit, the right breakfast cereal, the right laptop computer, the right brand of underarm deodorant."

We know nothing about the book or the author. But this opening we found interesting. Death is, of course, the only certainty in this world. We observe that most people do not want to deal with this reality. Many of the things people do – such as adherence to a religion or legacy building – are attempts in some way to get around facing the idea that in the end we die. And that’s that. (We will get more into the errors of thinking there is “another life” beyond this one in some future post).

Death, then, colors much of what we do. Most retreat from the reality of death. They either fear it or deny it in thought and deed. We, on the other hand, think this author has articulated the absurd position. We highlight it here because it is no common to find it so bluntly and refreshingly stated. Embracing the idea is also quite liberating.

Yes, we die.