January 3rd, 2019

Upon a recommendation from my favourite Instagram storyteller and businesswoman Aminatou Sow, I recently subscribed to We Croak, an app that pings you with five quotes per day on the subject of death and dying. It was designed in the spirit of the Bhutanese practice of contemplating death five times daily in order to cultivate happiness.

My favourite quote so far comes from Dōgen, a 13th century Japanese Buddhist priest who said the following: “In death, there is nothing but death.”

I read it over and over, and it brings me comfort. “In death, there is nothing but death.” The writing is clean, to the point, unsentimental. Reminds me of a pitch by Don Draper.