Chaplain Devin Moss reflects on mortality and how we can face our transience

According to Chaplain Devin Sean Moss, “death determines how we live.” The idea of ​​impermanence – the idea that everything is in a constant state of flux – and a “meditation on finitude,” Moss said, is “a kind of cheat code to make conscious and intentional choices and forces me to recognize my values… to know what my core is.”

For most people, the subject and contemplation of death and dying is rarely a source of inspiration. We fill our lives with work, travel, and time with friends and family. These are life-affirming activities that keep our minds from wandering too far toward our inevitable end.

For Devin Moss, facing death was a journey that was both sobering and inspiring. As a humanist chaplain, Devin Moss formed a years-long bond with Phillip Hancock, who was executed by the state of Oklahoma for a double murder. Moss' experiences were chronicled by the New York Times and were the subject of a previous Life Examined.

More: Facing death without God: pastoral care in the last hours of a person sentenced to death

Today Moss writes and hosts the podcast The Adventures of Memento Mori in which he explores the science, mysticism, culture and mystery of death. Moss regularly confronts his own mortality and says it is a mistake in our culture to shy away from the subject – “the inability to talk about it on a societal level has very damaging byproducts.” Moss says the message society is spreading is that there is a misunderstanding of what it means to be finite and that “everything is limitless.”

And when it comes to death itself, Moss urges listeners not to be deterred by fear or ignorance. “Just be comfortable with the unknown and do whatever you can to make it about the other person. Screw being good at it or knowing what you're doing.” For Moss, it's “about the skill, not what can I learn from this person when they die, but rather how can I make sure their death is preserved as a sacred act in a sacred space.”

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