Memento mori or remember death
The main ideas from the chapter are:
Awareness of mortality: Reminding yourself of your own mortality can lead to a better and more conscious life.
Behavior change: Young people could rethink their risky behaviors, and long-term projects could be better planned and completed.
Rethinking values: Awareness of the finiteness of life can lead to a reassessment of priorities and values.
Preparedness for death: It is important to have things in order so that we are not left with a backlog of unfinished business.
Living fully: Mortality should motivate us to live fully and enjoy life.
Self-reflection and contentment: The key is to learn to be content and to look for the positive aspects of life.
_____
Another, now a bit more pessimistic, observation is that I have a quite deep impression that if we would at least occasionally realize our mortality, fragility and, in fact, preciousness, we would live much better. Don’t you think?
I mean, I think that maybe many reckless youngsters who fly around in souped-up cars like madmen – would reconsider their actions and maybe even slow down. Or many long-term projects, the end of which is in sight, would get more concrete outlines or would be terminated before they are totally „rotten“. Perhaps many of us would also re-evaluate our value ranking because, with everyone’s expected death anyway, a lot of accumulated stuff will end up in the collection point, etc. Likewise, many perfectly serious and downright cruel problems would take on a comical dimension or point of view.
But there is another, if I may say so, „Toltec“ aspect to this, and that is (and I’m done with the negativity or pessimism, I promise) that really almost none of us know the day or the hour, so maybe it would be nice to have things „in order“, so that eventually we won’t be left with a lot of unfinished and incomplete things – or, to start only what I can handle and in a reasonable time = if you have ever liquidated an estate, you know very well what I am talking about… In short – to behave in such a way that I can die right now and not feel remorse that I haven’t managed to do this or that, didn’t tell others this and forgot about that…
Sometimes I have the feeling that there are people who behave as if they were immortal, eternal and nothing could happen to them. It’s not like „calling in the bad“ and painting the devil on the wall – hopefully we still understand each other. If you want to send a little chill down your spine, try to imagine (of course you don’t have to) that you’re going to die tomorrow…that a lot of things you haven’t done, said, etc. will come to mind, and likewise that maybe (I don’t know) all that saving and insurance was suddenly unnecessary and that I could still…well, that’s what I’m talking about 😉
I’m just going to die one day anyway, so why think about suicide! I’m gonna die one day anyway, so think about the point of what you’re doing.
That’s why you need to live life to the fullest and enjoy life and make yourself happy…what else is the real meaning if everything ends in death anyway! What do I care what’s left of me?! It’s about how I live and how I feel! Selfish? Oh, shit! Selfishness is something at the expense of another… if I don’t hurt others, who else but me should think of me?!? Do you really want to wait for others to start thinking about you? You’ll be waiting, because others are busy thinking about themselves!
The key is to learn to be content. I’ve observed something of an evolution of the individual. First it’s the pampered mommy who thinks she’s the center of the universe. This is followed by shock that it isn’t and understandable disillusionment that it is otherwise. The natural, and to some extent understandable, reaction is to be angry-resistant, to try to change things. This is followed by early adult resignation and then only maturity, i.e., the effort to seek the nice and actively create (attract) it…do you agree? 😉