On Being Not Dead

Came across a thoughtful Op-Ed piece in the NY TIMES by Bill Hayes a short time ago that echoes one of the themes of this blog: pay attention.  It contrasts being dead — you either are or you aren't — with being alive, which is more nuanced:

After all, there are many ways to die — peacefully, violently, suddenly, slowly, happily, unhappily, too soon. But to be dead — one either is or isn’t.

The same cannot be said of aliveness, of which there are countless degrees. One can be alive but half-asleep or half-noticing as the years fly, no matter how fully oxygenated the blood and brain or how steadily the heart beats. Fortunately, this is a reversible condition. One can learn to be alert to the extraordinary and press pause — to memorize moments of the everyday.