I was wrong about the simple choice.

[Astreja]

Have compassion for yourself to the extent you begin to fear your everlasting destiny.

But I don't  fear my "everlasting destiny."  I accept that living things die, and that that is where everything ends for all that lives.  I believe that there never was any such thing as life after death, and that there never will be such a thing, no matter how many people want it.

My compassion -- and yes, I have a considerable amount of it -- is centered in the here-and-now.  It waxes and wanes, like any other emotion, depending on the circumstances.  It needs no supernatural trappings and no gods.  It is what it is, and that's fine.