Lucinda Holdforth

If we are to live forever, then there's no finite end that gives us this sense of what am I going to do with this, my one wild and precious life?

So I think we will start having this conversation.

And another person who talked about this was Saul Bellow.

He said death...

is the dark backing a mirror needs if we are to see anything.

And I really love that idea that if we didn't have death as a sort of end point, how could we think about our motivations and, you know, who we are in quite the same way?

And when I look at those awful tech bros and world dictators, I think, why are they avoiding death?

And I can't help but think...

They don't want to have a legacy.

They don't want to think about legacy.

And they really do not want to see their obituaries because their obituaries will not be kind to them.

Isn't it wrong?

It's so wrong.

In every way, it's just terrible.

And it doesn't make life better, thinking like that, does it?

It makes it worse, I think, actually.

What I want to say really is you're important.

You're valued.

You'll have the people who love you and they want you.

And wherever you are and whatever you're doing, that matters very much.