Living with Mortality: Life Goes On

Malin Dollinger, MD, and Bernard Dubrow, MS 

We revel in life's beginning, wrestle with its challenges
and take pride in our achievements. We know deep
down that we are mortal and that our life will end
some time in the future—the distant future, we
hope—but we are not consciously aware of
our mortality from day to day.
    The media bombard us with flashes of
death in stories and graphic pictures of
car accidents, plane crashes, murders and
wars, but we block them out in our minds.
We feel protected and safe. We can accept
the deaths of war heroes and old people,
but reject the idea of its happening to us.
We focus on guarding and enjoying our life and
intuitively distance ourselves from thoughts of our mortality.