One immutable, basic reality applies equally to every living thing on the planet: It is going to die.
As a living thing, those realities apply to me. There can be no genuine understanding of oneself or of others outside that fact.
Being a cognitive living thing, capable of thinking abstractly, I understand that I am alive and that I am going to die. Objectively that is neither good nor bad — it simply is, and evokes no emotion in me. I am here, and I must deal with it. Someday I am not going to be here, and I must deal with that, too.
That understanding is the seedbed in which healthy religion grows.
William Saroyan wrote, "Try as much as possible to be wholly alive, with all your might. When you laugh, laugh like hell and when you get angry, get good and angry. Try to be alive. You will be dead soon enough."
That is a religious statement.
Many Bible passages refer to the imageo dei, the concept that humankind shares the essence of god-ness. Ergo, to be fully human is to be godlike. Stated another way, to be godlike is not to transcend humanness by becoming superhumanly "good," but to use our human qualities to their fullest extent.
Of course the foregoing is a mixed metaphor.
The "I am alive" is about biology. Being fully alive is what we do with our biological aliveness. Since I am alive (biological) I serve my own destiny and best interests by being intentionally fully alive (spiritual).
By "spiritual" I do not mean ethereally religious. Whoever decided that the words "religious" and "spiritual" are functional synonyms did the world no favor.
To be truly spiritual is to come alive! Get with it! Do something you really want to do, even something outrageous! Experiment! Don't throw caution to the winds, but don't let it rule your life, either. Move out of your comfort zone, lest it become your coffin!
Saroyan also wrote, tongue-in-cheek, "Everybody has got to die, but I always believed that an exception would be made in my case."
No exceptions: I am going to die — cease to exist biologically.
Contemplating that reality distresses me not one whit. Thankfully, the human mortality rate is still 100 percent. The time will come for each of us when death is our best friend.
"Death" as a negative, the last enemy, a frightening event faced forthrightly by only the strongest and bravest, is a spurious concept.
What we think and feel about death is acquired by association. Moving mentally from being to non-being, from existence to non-existence, is something very young minds just can't do.
Our youngest daughter was 6 when my beloved grandfather died. She had no idea what that meant. At his funeral her sister asked why she was crying. Her reply was, "Because Daddy and Mother are crying."
Sharing sorrow at the loss of a familiar beloved person is normal and healthy. Grief over the fact of death, or terror over its inevitability, are neither. Within any subculture, the emotions about death get transmitted and perpetuated from generation to generation.
My religion assures me that death is not a tragedy for anyone who experiences it. Sure, some deaths bring grief to the survivors, but grief is healthy and need not, must not be, permanent or crippling. Grief is a reflection of love. I hope somebody grieves when I shuffle off this mortal coil, but not for long. And I certainly hope grief does not displace happiness, pleasure, and joy.
I'm alive and am going to die. OK, I can deal with that. So what do I do in the meantime?
Well, live it up! Life is meant to be enjoyed. Even the dour old Westminster Shorter Catechism teaches that "Man's chief end is to glorify God … and enjoy!" In fact, life most glorifies God when it enjoys being really alive!

Editor's note: W. Jackson "Jack" Wilson is a psychologist, an Episcopal priest, a sometime academic and a writer living in Colorado. He writes with humor, whimsy, passion and penetrating insight into the human condition. And in Pushkin, Russia, a toilet is named in his honor.

Editor's note: We welcome and encourage readers to keep the dialogue going by responding to Source commentary. Letters should be e-mailed with name and place of residence to [email protected].