Gen X Mortality Moments

Mid-life seems the time for grappling with your own mortality. I am guessing it is not just me experiencing more frequent occasions to consider the brevity of our human experience. Just last week I woke one morning and read the deeply touching obituary of a former colleague. It brought me to tears and into a meaningful mental space.

Am I doing things and building the relationships that make this journey worthwhile?

Why did I never get a glimpse of that person as they actually were? I only knew the suit.

A few days later, another conversation about a recently passed GenXer made me curious. What percentage of my generation has already passed? A 2018 Duke University Study reported by ScienceDaily didn't answer my exact question but did point out leading causes of the increase in mortality rates among GenX. As matches what I have been hearing about, mental health and addictive substances including alcohol are cited along with cancer.

These mortality moments that we have when we hear a story of a former classmate or co-worker or even more impactful when we lose a parent or sibling, take us deep below the surface logistics that we normally occupy. The granular mental load of our daily obligations ceases to exist as we stop to consider,

What am I doing all this for?

Who will remember me in the way I would like to be remembered?

Is my life meaningful to me?

Though certainly a balance of what 'must be done' with 'how we are making an impact' our journeys provide us with the opportunity to make choices that answer these questions in different ways. Being intentional about the story we are crafting day in and day out provides some peace when we have these reminders of our own future death.

We may say it all the time, but our lives and our time to make a difference are short. Now is a great opportunity for GenX to consider whether our path is aligned with our values and designed to be worth remembering.