Splendid

I see the COVID-19 death count on the side panel of CNN every day, but the pandemic has largely remained an intellectual exercise for me. Before last week, I didn’t know anyone included in that number.

Thanks to Robin Williams and some dead poets (and a pretty sweet day/nightclub at the harbor on Hvar!), I know about ‘Carpe Diem’ and seizing the day. But I think about the future. So my latin love is ‘Memento Mori’. It means “remember death”. It is perhaps a bit morbid for some, but whatever...I wear black.

Every major religion teaches lessons about our mortality. But I am not a religious person…and they also have some ideas about how that life should be lived. That’s not for me. But I do love me some Romans and Samurai!

So…

In Meditations, Marcus Aurelius mused “You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think.” I like that…particularly in how you treat those you love. But he really meant that you should contemplate your mortality so that you live a virtuous life. Yeah, no…a bridge too far.

Bushido, Samurai code, was highly connected to the concept of memento mori and an honorable death. But more beautiful is their reverence for the changing autumn leaves and the cherry blossoms. They philosophized about things being their most splendid just before they fall. I like that too…continually improving yourself and your life so that you are most splendid just before your final moments.

I almost died three times in my life. That tomorrow is not promised is something I shouldn’t need to be reminded about. But like everyone, I frequently get caught up in the tasks of life over living the best one. So, I say bring it on next week, CNN…I welcome the reminder.