Thanks For the Mortality Check, CNN’s Many Countdown Clocks!

Everything in life is a countdown to something---an election, a Trump speech, another Russian hack---but, in the end, we're all counting down to the same thing: death.

Sometimes it's easy to forget mortality. You're in love. Your child is born. A funny hashtag is trending, and joy seeps into your day. The present moment expands and fills with light, crowding out the sorrow or doubt or fear. Even sublimity---the glorious recognition that death is out there but is not coming for you just yet---cannot invade the complete immediacy of now.

But then the love of your life turns on CNN, and a countdown clock tears through the wall that joy erected around your present moment and the past and future come crashing in on you. Your every breath is an inhale closer to your own demise. Your baby's first steps are a sign of your impending doom. Even he, chubby and perfect, is toddling to his death.

Today, CNN counts down to Trump's immigration speech. To quote someone who is dead, "I grow old, I grow old, I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled," and all the while CNN’s countdown clocks follow me from room to room on different TVs and iPad screens.

Life is just one big countdown clock—which, in turn, comprises a series of smaller countdown clocks. It's a nesting doll of fatalism, and, thankfully, CNN is here to remind us of that.

(In case you were wondering: Trump's immigration speech is happening in approximately three and a half hours.)