You Can't Carpe Diem Without Memento Mori-ing

A couple of months ago I was in a pretty bad car accident. My life didn’t “flash before my eyes,” but there was a moment I thought I was going to die. And that hangs heavy. Even months later.

Coming face-to-face with our own mortality is uncomfortable. There is power in the fragility of life. I will die. You will die. As Haruki Murakami says in Norwegian Wood: “Death exists, not as the opposite but as a part of life.” Memento Mori. “Remember that you will die.”

Of course there is the danger of becoming overly morose when one lives in the recognition of death. Some may even come to believe that life is futile. But the reverse is also possible. Living in the shadow of death can bring life.

I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase Carpe Diem, usually translated as “Seize the Day!” It appeared as a major theme in Dead Poet’s Society and those darn young people often try to translate it as “YOLO!” (“You Only Live Once”) while doing stupid things. But I don’t think that’s how Carpe Diem is meant to be understood. And I don’t think you can really Carpe the Diem without Memento-Mori-ing. In other words, we cannot “seize the day” without carrying the remembrance that death is ever present. Remembering death can help us savor life. In the shadow of death, life takes on new light if we let it.

In times of cultural grieving like we’re currently experiencing, it feels as though the heaviness of death can be oppressive. But it is my prayer that we can Carpe Diem because we Memento Mori. May the reminder of death compel to make the most of life.