Memento Mori
Death
A word everyone knows, most avoid, some fear and only few use to their advantage.
The concept I will talk about in this post has been fundamentally life changing to me and has given me unbelievable strength and drive. I know the topic might sound a bit dark at first but trust me when I tell you that this could change everything for you.
The single true phrophecy
To quote Ryan Holiday from one of his Ted Talks "You are going to die". As of right now there is no way to avoid this. Death is a fundamental and one of the few guarenteed parts of your life. You might never get to visit Paris, you might never run a marathon, but you are definitely going to die. Medical advancements and technological progress have been able to dramatically increase humans' lifespans, but even they haven't found a way around the claws of death yet. The day will come on which you will stop breathing, your heart will stop beating and the spark in your eyes will vanish. I am sorry to break it to you, but there's no running away!
Core concept explained
Memento Mori is all about acknowleding this fact, acknowleding that your time is limited, that your moments on this earth are finite and that your days are counted. It is accepting the harsh reality of life and not letting the illusion of youth trick you into believing your life would go on forever. It doesn't.
It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.
Marcus Aurelius
Historic background
Now for a bit of historic background. The term Memento Mori finds its roots in the period of classiqual antiquity somehwere between the 8th and 6th century BC. It is latin and can be translated into "beware that you will die". Aside from individuals like Plato and Deomocritus, the ones who were particularly kean on practcing this discipline were the stoics. As part of their meditations they constantly reminded themselves of their mortality and also the one of loved ones, making sure death wouldn't hurt them when it came. Later on in the 17th century memento mori became internationally popular again after the black death (bubonic plague) had quite literally covered the world with corpses and suffering. This extreme confrontation with mortality clearly made an impression on people. Especially in art from the time, death became a key element. In the form of skeletons, skulls, hourglasses and roses it reminded people of their inevitable future.
Mind Game
Let's get interactive for a moment. Imagine you were told that you only had five more years to live. Let's say you had some uncurable disease which in five years would simply make your organs fail. Now, what would you do? Seriously, what the hell would you do with these five years? Would you still do the same thing you're doing right now? Still go to school or do the job you have at the moment? Or would you quit? Would you change something? What specifically would you do differently? Think about it. There's no right or wrong answer here, just be honest with yourself. Optimally, write it down!
Practical Application
As you might have noticed from the mind game, the practical application of memento mori comes down to respecting and appreciating our time more than we do right now. In our modern world it has become increasingly easy to just follow the flow of everyone else. We let notifications and social media interrupt us, allow other people to push us around, and say yes to everything we come across because we feel as if we had to please others. Memento Mori has taught me that my time is valuable and that it is my right to consciously choose how to spend it. Let's keep it real here, some things need to get done despite the fact that we might not particularly enjoy them. And some other things are just so destructive that doing them would only kill us faster. In my opinion though what is important is knowing that you are in control to a great extent. You might not always get to choose what to do with your time and you might need to make a few trade offs here and there to avoid unnecissarily damaging your body, but noticing the moments in which you do have a choice is already a huge step into the right direction.
Conclusion
You are going to die. The concept of memento mori is all about acknowleding and embracing this reality. Reminding ourselves that the time we have on this earth isn't endless allows us to become more catious about how we decide to spend it but at the same time braver in terms of our willingness to take risks to get to the life we aspire. The day will come on which it will be too late, so why bother waiting? Why bother living a life you don't want? Make use of your right to change your reality. Choose wisely what you do, what things you gift your attention and most importantly who you spend your time with. All these things have a price, time has a price and unfortunately one you can't afford. So don't take it for granted.
The day we fear as our last is but the birthday of eternity.
Seneca
Sources
