We’re all going to die, but that means we all got the chance to live—so we’re the lucky ones.

>Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born.
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>The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Arabia.
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>Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively exceeds the set of actual people.
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>In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here. We privileged few, who won the lottery of birth against all odds —Richard Dawkins

Thinking of this makes me feel like we’re in a private club—me, you, and every other person on Earth.

Everyone I see at work, at school, in traffic, at the gym, at the grocery store, on social media, etc., has made it to life by the skin of their teeth. We are all taking part in this exclusive event.

Without trying to sound corny, we really are all in this together. This is everyone's first time living.

But as special as I feel, I don’t confuse it with me being significant. I keep in mind that this gift (life) is a temporary experience. It’s a joy ride. And when it’s over, we have to go back to wherever we came from.

There have been about 100 billion humans in Earth's history, and there will be 100 billion more after us. So it’s not our world. It’s just our turn.

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This post was from my newsletter

I share ideas from great thinkers so we can stand on the shoulders of giants, instead of figuring life out on our own