You Must Want To Do What You Have To Do

Everyone has to die, and since you have to do it, you might as well want to do it.

I don't want to resist what God has planned.

I might as well embrace my fate.

There is no sense in denying the inevitable.

Stoic philosophers speak of directing zero energy to the unchangeable, and all of our energy to the changeable. What we can change is our ATTITUDE about death, but not death itself; the latter is inevitable, and therefore deserves absolutely none of our attention. To try to change it would be effectively beating our head against a rock. What cannot be changed I say we might as well embrace with a spirit of not only acceptance but even willingness and joy. 

The way I see it, there are two basic attitude choices: despair or joy. We can choose joy over despair every single time. A lot of life comes down to our internal decisions; the stoic philosophers such as Marcus Aurelius would talk of the same thing; he would argue that ALL of life comes down to such decisions. In the face of every possible circumstance, we get to choose between despair and joy. Why not choose joy? Choose joy in every possible circumstance. It makes all the more sense to do so in the face of the perhaps one thing that we Cannot change no matter what we do: death. Therefore I say: face death with a spirit of joy. 

If you have to do it, why choose to despair over it? It's like you're given one basic option: despair or joy: death is inevitable; why choose despair when you could easily just choose joy; it's obviously the better option. Why fight what you can't change? And why despair over what you can't change? By the very nature of its being unchangeable, it gives us all the more reason to face it with a spirit of joy. Its very unchangeableness simplifies the decision.