When ancient roman generals won war, their victory was celebrated with a grand parade of millions of people .
Big feasts were held in castle and throughout the state . Statues were built in their names. Poetry and songs were written describing their courage.
But, there was a strange tradition that was done in parallel to such grand celebrations.
During the parade a slave used to come and whisper in their ears of the general : ’Memento Mori’
It is a Latin word which means- “Remember you have to die”.
It was a Roman tradition, to remind their emperors- that don’t get too much caught up in celebrating – remember that all these will end and you will die eventually.
This is a cornerstone practice of stoic philosophy, to remind yourself that you will die. I have been trying to do this for last couple of years as well. I have a whatsapp group, where only I am the only member. I try to jot down my quick thoughts and observations about my life and surroundings there. It is like a moving journal. One thing, I write there daily – is this: ’Memento Mori’, reminding myself that I will die.
It truly helps me, differentiate the noise from signal.
The way our society and life is built- it feels like our life will last forever.
It feels like Death is something that happens to someone else.
It happens to old people.
It happens to someone in the news. But well, nothing is more false than that.
We all will die- this is the only inevitable truth.
Memento Mori is like a slap to ones soul to wake up -and not to take ones life for granted.
Reminding myself that I will die, helps me liberate from so many things. It helps me , easily identify what is truly important in my life- whom do I love, what I really want to do, how i want to spend my time.
It also helps me identify, on how many pointless irrelevant things I stressed about doesn’t matter. We create our own insecurities, problems, worries in our own head. Nothing external can affect our ability to act with virtue, at least almost nothing.
Reminding myself that all these will end, does not sadden my mood. Rather, it gives me a sense of focus and urgency to do meaningful stuff before I expire. It helps me become grateful for all the blessings of life, that I used to take for granted. While it is the most powerful bullshit detector, I know .
A similar thought is to imagine that everything you do or experience could be your last time. Each moment could be your final opportunity to do or experience that particular thing. This perspective makes those moments more precious.
There is a Steve Jobs quote that I love: “Think of your life as a rainbow arcing across the horizon of this world. You appear, have a chance to blaze in the sky, then you disappear. To know my arc will fall makes me want to blaze while I am in the sky. Not for others, but for myself, for the trail I know I am leaving.”