[September 2003 journal entry]
Our youngest daughter (now fourteen years old) recently disclosed the anxiety she sometimes experiences re realizing her mortality – “You are a teenager . . . then you marry . . . then your children are raised . . . then you grow old . . . then you die. There are times when it feels so fast and it’s all over. It scares me.” I offered her a perception that has assisted me in finding a measure of peace re my mortality – i.e., that at least by age thirty I had already experienced a wider and deeper life than will be the privilege of virtually all human beings (most of whom will not even conceive of such experiences). How, with this realization, can I feel penalized by illness or death? And how, with this realization, can I justify draining the resources of those near me and the resources of society when I am no longer able to make significant contribution to them?
