‘Memento Mori’ is a Latin phrase common in Stoic literature that translates, quite gruesomely, to ‘Remember that you will die.’
Morbid, I know. But maybe being aware of our mortality is a gift we all need. Remembering the fragility of human life means we are more likely to treat others and ourselves with more care, more likely to seize the day, more likely to seize the the opportunities placed before us, and more likely to be present and grateful despite any looming clouds of sorrow.
Stoicism
Originating in Athens in 300BC, Stoicism is a school of Philosophy built on the bedrock of 4 cardinal values: courage, justice, temperance, and wisdom. Stoicism emphasizes the importance of living a virtuous, disciplined, and rational life. It teaches the development of self-control and fortitude as a means of overcoming destructive emotions.
Stoicism has become more mainstream as of late, mainly because of the influence of people like Ryan Holiday and William Irvine, who write extensively about it. Many athletes, entrepreneurs, and Silicon Valley folks have adopted stoicism as a means to help them better navigate the world, themselves, and business at large. The removal of emotion from certain aspects of life allows people to make the most rational decision the situation calls for.
Despite this, I do not identify as a Stoic myself. There are many reasons for this, but the main one being that I’m never really thrilled to take on a new label to represent.
Nevertheless. Memento Mori.
Remember That You Will Die
Legend has it that when a general returned in glory to Rome, during his parade a slave would follow him through the streets. The job of the slave was to remind him that his victory was fleeting. The slave would whisper, “Memento Mori” —“Remember that you will die.“
In the words of Louis Pereira: ”Stoicism manages to inflate deflated egos and deflate inflated ones.“ Remembering the fleeting nature of certain things helps ground us so we don’t bank all of our happiness on a single thing. It also means that our suffering can also be mitigated by the fact that, in the scheme of things, this is all momentary. This too shall pass. It is a reminder that even suffering is finite.
Anxiety and Excitement
When we realize we are mortal, that our time is limited, that we may not have as many opportunities as we thought we had, there is a certain excitement that is generated, a proverbial fire set underneath our metaphorical asses. It creates an urgency that didn’t exist before. We suddenly become hyperaware of what we want to achieve and we suddenly get more motivated to achieve it.
But for some of us, me included, this excitement is often served with an unnecessarily large side of anxiety. The pressure of being told you have potential, that people expect great things from you, and by extension you expect great things of yourself, and just generally having your own ambitions. These things can be quite the burden to bare. But to you I say:
Take a breath. You have time. Infinite time? No. But enough time. Enough time to fail and try again, enough time to be reckless and to rein it in a bit, enough time to search for what you think you want, and enough time to change your mind about what that may be. When you take as much time as you need to figure things out you soon realize that it doesn’t take as much time as you thought it would. Dedicate yourself fully to your healing, so you can carpe diem — seize the day.
When we spend time beating ourselves up for needing time, we only delay our own healing. It’s not good for you, and it’s not constructive.
”It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it. Life is long enough, and a sufficiently generous amount has been given to us for the highest achievements if it were all well invested. So it is: we are not given a short life but we make it short, and we are not ill-supplied but wasteful of it… Life is long if you know how to use it.“
― Seneca, A Stoic playwright and political advisor
YOU ARE CAPABLE
My personal interpretation of self-improvement, and thus Stoicism, is that despite the fragility of human life we are capable of great and mighty exploits.
To be human is to be mortal and to be mortal is to be fragile, but despite human fragility we are still capable of things unimaginable.
“Do not think that what is hard for you to master is humanly impossible; and if it is humanly possible, consider it to be within your reach.”
― Marcus Aurelius, A Stoic Roman Emperor
Closing Thoughts… Memento Vivere
‘Memento Vivere,’ translated means ‘Remember to live.’
A phrase that I believe is infinitely more important than Memento Mori is Memento Vivere. Above all else, Memento Mori is a reminder to live your life to the fullest because it may end at any moment. I take these two hand in hand because I believe that both of these reminders are good for the soul. Remember to live. Remember that you exist. Remember that there is a world out there worth exploring, a world of grandeur, experience, love, and all the things that make a moment feel infinite.
Remember to live, my dear readers. Remember to seize the days, the hours, the moments. Remember that life is a most precious thing. Tell your friends you love them, and proceed to love them unrelentingly. Talk to men, women, and children. Make them laugh. Make them cry glorious tears of joy. Exist. Exist in the moment. Make it yours. Do something with it, because inaction is a slow death.
And finally, a quote often wrongly attributed to Marcus Aurelius:
“When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive-to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.”
My dear readers, Memento Vivere.
Vienna waits for you.
“I exist. In thousands of agonies — I exist. I’m tormented on the rack — but I exist! Though I sit alone in a pillar — I exist! I see the sun, and if I don’t see the sun, I know it’s there. And there’s a whole life in that, in knowing that the sun is there.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
