Memento Mori
- Ryan Bresnahan
- Mar 29, 2021
- 3 min read
Have you thought about your death?
When you might die? How it's going to go? Are you going to die?
The Stoics (Marcus Aurelius, Ryan Holiday, George Washington, many ancient philosophers) would think about this quite often.
Why?
Memnto Mori is a latin based saying that generally means, "Remember that you will die".
Objects such as skulls or hour glasses are usually associated with it as symbolic factors. Our time here is limited.
This is fun and bright isn't it!?
The reminder that tomorrow, even 5 minutes from now could be my last day, my last moment here on this earth, with my experience (body, relationships, dog, home, the list goes on.)
What is something, someone that you are thankful for, and if you died nine days from now, would you change, do, say something new/different? Would this change the way you act, make you do something that you have been wanting to do for a while?
If you answer yes, you are now a level 5 Stoic. This is the exercise and thought process behind Memento Mori, keeping our mortality and sense of urgency real. When I wake up, the first thing I think about is when I am going to die! Just kidding. I do enjoy this exercise and think about it especially when I find myself in a rut, or if I feel stuck, or even "bored". The fact that a year from now I could die, means that I have 52 weekends left, and from Jesse Itzler, author of Living with a seal, living with monks, and the owner of the Atlanta Hawks basketball team usually says, "How many times do you usually see your parents a year?"
Well now that I graduated and live in another state than them. The answer is 3-4 times a year.
So now Jessie would say, "Okay, so what you are telling me is that are you going to see your parents 3, maybe 4 more times before you die".
Well, now put like that, I would want to spend a lot more time with them and be able to see them more than just once every 3 months, or at the very least be in much more constant communication with them to a higher degree of connection and enjoyment in each conversation. That right there is something that Memento Mori could help someone with, and has helped me, in making what we have in life more meaningful, and us living out truly how we want to live. It's almost similar to how we procrastinate on school projects, we do get it done eventually, but not until right before the due date. Well when we move the due date of life up, or make it more real (such as when it becomes more real on the school project due date), we go pedal to the medal to make it happen, correct? Now think about how this would affect that one goal that you said you've always wanted to get done. The person you've always wanted to talk to. The place you've always wanted to travel to, the food you've always wanted to eat. When you're dying tomorrow, next week, 5 years from now, there is not as much room for excuses is there?
Ask yourself, if you were to die tomorrow or next week, 5 years from now, what would you differently now? How would you talk to your significant other differently, would you go out and be more of a butterfly and go find one, if you don't have one now? Would you tell your kids you loved them right now, for no reason? Would you start to work on yourself, because this whole time, you've been telling yourself "I'll start tomorrow?" We would not be as eager to add to the richness of the graveyard with another idea not acted upon, another invention not created, another relationship not created, another group of people not helped from this inaction.
Memento Mori
Ryan Bresnahan
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