To clean up is to do shadow work.

It is to dig into our past and reprocess and remodel those experiences, thoughts and fears that haunt us to this day, the ones that steer our behavior and attitudes off course from what we know to be our higher self.

But can we clean up our future? Can we confront our shadow not about our past, but about our future, and in the process heal ourselves today in preparation for the journey ahead?

In this fascinating New York Times Op-Doc, noted photographer Phil Toledano takes us on precisely this 3-year journey within himself, confronting all the various ways he can grow old, disease, wither, and die. At first blush it seems like Mr. Toledano’s project was custom-designed to address only his deep fears and neuroses. But don’t blink, or you might miss the ways his project speaks to what is universal in each of us.