Today’s pill (105): “Memento mori” (Remember you will die)
In the photo: Roman mosaic, ancient symbol representing the transience of life (skull) beneath a butterfly (soul) balancing on the wheel of fortune.
1st century B.C., Naples National Archaeological Museum.
The notion of “remembering death” appears throughout European history, and other cultures. This concept is also expressed throughout ancient Greek and Roman philosophy (stoicism, especially.)
”The stoic thing is it would not be what are you going to think on your deathbed. The stoics would say, actually you’re on your deathbed right now, first off because you could die at any moment, but the other thing the stoics tell us is that we’re dying all the time, so if you actually understand having children or your own life as a process of dying, you’re one year old and one day for one day, the person you’re now like, it’s kind of a dark way to think about it, but having kids is this constant process of loss but also gain, because who they were they’re no longer but they’re this new thing and so, as you’re doing, you’re committing to other things, you’re gone too much, you’re working too much, all this stuff, it’s not like, hey, in the future you’re going to regret this, you’re going to feel like you’re losing on, you’re losing out on something right now. You have a finite amount of time and you’re choosing to do this other thing instead, and to understand also that this, I can’t wait till they’re walking, I can’t wait till they’re driving, what you’re also doing is fast forwarding through the thing that you want the most.” (Ryan Holiday in a recent discussion with Whitney Cummings)
