And live life now. I’m in Machu Picchu, Peru, with my dear friend Andrew over the next week. This trip has been on both of our “bucket lists.” Bucket list is a term that came into popular vernacular after the 2007 Rob Reiner film The Bucket List. It details all those things you’d like to do before you “kick the bucket.”
A few weeks ago, I went to a lecture at the Rubin Museum in New York on how to die. The lecture was a part of the museum’s Tibetan Book of Dead Book Club series. During it, the speaker suggested that the way we die is the way we live. His comment got me thinking: I want to see life as an adventure, and I hope to approach death with the same curiosity.
Instead of fearing death, I want to embrace it. According to Buddhism, death and life are but two sides of the same coin. Death is a natural part of life, rather than something separate.
The speaker continued: “Attachment to life spoils life itself.” Perhaps by beginning to die today, we begin truly living.
There’s a big difference between being alone and lonely.