People fear death, but it is not the dying that’s frightening–you will not experience being dead–it’s not being able to do the things they love, an end to life. Are you doing what you truly want to do right now–are you living your life, or waiting for it?
In one of his letters, Seneca tells a short story of Caligula’s cutting encounter with some captives:
Caligula was once passing a column of captives on the Latin Road when one of them, with a hoary old beard reaching down his breast, begged to be put to death. ‘So,’ replied Caligula, ‘you are alive, then, as you are?’