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# Death and Ego
- URL: https://www.annabelascher.com/death-and-ego/
- Published: 2026-11-01T15:36:14.000Z
- Updated: 2026-11-01T15:36:14.000Z
- Description: Thinking about death, ego, and attachment. When thinking of our own mortality, the chief actor is ego. When contemplating the death of loved ones, the chief actor is attachment. Which is connected to ego on a string.
- Author: Annabel Ascher
- Tags: Culture, Death, Human Animal, Meaning, Literature, Essays

Thinking about death, ego, and attachment. When thinking of our own mortality, the chief actor is ego. When contemplating the death of loved ones, the chief actor is attachment. Which is connected to ego on a string.   
  
We are born this way. The "I" is the only point of view we can ever have. Going outside of the "I" is only possible for brief moments, in loving sexual embrace or spiritual ecstasy. After which we always return to center. There is nothing wrong with this.

Because we are temporary death or the knowledge of death infuses all that we do. When we are young we KNOW that death exists, but it seems hypothetical. The result of stupidity or bad luck. By 70, it appears as a certainty.

We fear the deaths of our loved ones because of OUR attachment to them. It manifests from the "I". And we fear our own death because the idea of a world without us is incomprehensible. This is a feature, not a bug.

The idea that other humans very similar to us will carry on is...cold comfort. It warms when those humans are our children. That is as close as any of us are going to get to continuing. And it does not include the smell of spring air, or the taste of fresh corn with butter, or the warmth of a lover's touch. It is, simply, the only option.