Memento Mori: An Everyday Gift
November 23rd, today is my birthday. Commonly, a birthday is used as a symbol of celebration for enduring another year. Not to say I do not enjoy my yearly milestone of birth, but birth is always around us. The same can also be said for death, but we do not apply the same connotation for death as birth. Why is that? Maybe it is because we fear endings. Or perhaps because it is difficult to accept good things swift back and forth like seasonal weather. Before you continue reading, let me express a caveat; death is as beautiful as life (when meditated in the same space).
As I continue to expand my library of literature, an underlying theme I’ve began to comprehend is the concept of Memento Mori. Memento Mori is symbolic, it indicates that the only certainly of life (other than birth) is death.
When reading Marcus Aurelius, the father of ancient stoic philosophy; his reality was riddled with death. He never truly knew his father, his grandparents also passed when he was a child. His father figure, Antonious, died while he was preparing to become Emperor of Rome. Even more devastating, Marcus Aurelius experienced the death of over half his children during his lifetime. Eventually, Marcus Aurelius died in a wretched pandemic similar to today. To experience the Hero’s Journey, still to endure the same loss everyone will equally meet.
A similar arc can be explained with Job in the Bible. The wealthiest of wealthy, yet in the blink of eye lost everything. Job endured death in many facets; of his lifestyle, his wealth, his family, and nearly the death of himself caused by the pain of it all. He was used as Satan’s prop, in an attempt to show how when catastrophe shows up to our doorstep, we shatter.
Even in modern times, the COVID-19 pandemic has also demonstrated that death is sudden; and without preparation or accountability can become dangerously suffocating to a society. Experts claimed that nothing was to be feared, that resources were becoming available and that the worst of times would soon recede. Yet, as of today, the death toll of COVID related deaths in 2021 has surpassed 2020; when there were less resources, certainty, and in actuality more to lose. Why is that?
Memento Mori is able to aid in each of these historical scenarios. The inevitability of death does not indicate we should relinquish our agency, let evil prove victorious, or allow the odds to dictate our hope. Instead, the mediation of death is freeing and opportunistic. Memento Mori allows for the individual to not obsess over the finitude of life or the fearfulness of loss. In reality we are only here for a short amount of time anyways, and what can happen to ANYBODY can happen to EVERYBODY. They say as you get older, a birthday become less valuable. I agree to an extent, the extent of which wrongfully divides life and death into separate categories of reflection. Remember, life is going to continue to press forward as every birthday passes. My birthday is not any more “special” to celebrate than other days, all days should be considered a gift. However, it is valuable because it allows me the new opportunity to practice mediating alongside Memento Mori. The time that passes belongs to death, but the infinite belongs to you.