The sociologist Zygmunt Bauman suggests that human beings are the only creatures who know they are going to die. And worse than that, they know they know, and can’t un-know it.

But Bauman challenges us well: to construct a life …

“forgetful of death, life lived as meaningful and worth-living, life alive with purpose instead of being crushed and incapacitated by purposelessness, is a formidable human achievement.”