Martin Heidegger, the father of twentieth century existentialist philosophy, argued that death brings life into focus, that humans lead inauthentic lives when we forget that, from the moment of our births, we are shot like arrows towards death. The first movement towards authentic existence is to remember what we seek to forget: that our lives are limited, that they take their meaning from the choices we make with the little time given to us. Put bluntly, life is only really lived in the sight of death.