To die will be an awfully big adventure.

—Peter Pan

Death is inescapable. Just as old Marley, soon we will all be as dead as doornails. We all will die eventually. Maybe today, maybe tomorrow, maybe in thirty years, maybe in eighty if we are young and lucky. But eventually the Grim Reaper gets us all.^[1]

It may have been different in the past when we were more surrounded by death and more used to seeing it and accepting it, but these days I think the common view is to be scared of death, to be scared of the idea of death, and therefore to avoid thinking about our own impending death.

In my view, this is silly and misguided. Why be afraid of something that will come? Fearing things that can be avoided may have some use or using fear to be extra careful can be quite useful. Fearing things that cannot be avoided, however, is meaningless. The fear won't prevent the thing. Being afraid of it only adds stress to our lives, stress that adds wrinkles to our brow, stress that ages us and may, ironically, lead to an earlier death.

I fear war. I can avoid war (to some degree) and I will avoid war as much as I can. I fear hurting myself when splitting wood with my axe. Therefore, I am always extra careful when using it.

These things can be useful. But fearing death?

Better to look at death as an adventure. One that we hope we won't embark on for many years, perhaps, but an adventure nonetheless. Maybe there is another life waiting, maybe there is nothing, maybe there is something completely different. How exciting!

But in the meantime, rather than worrying about death, which is just as silly as worrying about rain, better to enjoy every moment as if it were your last. Go outside and dance!

(Released to the public domain, by Pxhere)

	David LaSpina is an American photographer and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku.

1. Well, inescapable for now. There are a lot of bright minds looking for medical, biological, and technical ways to "fix" the problem of death. Some very bright minds think that the future of humanity is immortality, homo deus, in the words of Yuval Noah Harari. But for now, for us... it is inescapable. ↩