Memento Mori...

The daily meditation book I've been using this year has been on an "everybody dies!" kick the last few days. Now, it's partly because the book came about from two people exchanging messages back and forth and during the exercise one of them was diagnosed with cancer so I can see why death was on their minds but...

Everybody dies.

It's also a pretty common meditation focusing tactic. Which seems odd, right? Like why would you focus on your death to bring calm to your life? Well for some people knowing that eventually none of this will be a big deal brings them calm. For some people it freaks them the fuck out so I wouldn't focus on it if you are one of those.

It's sort of like how I love the ocean because of the vastness. Because it's unknowable. When I am in, near, on, thinking about, the ocean I know that I am only engaging with the smallest part. Even when I'm snorkeling and looking at everything under the water that I can see there is still so much more that I can't. It's vast. It's deep. It's more that I can wrap my head around.

I think people who love space love that about it. It's more than you will ever know. It's more than we will ever see. It's unknowable for us. It's too vast. It's too much.

For a not insignificant number of people those things freak them out. The feeling of never knowing what is happening under the water, the darkness of really deep water. The infinite space of, well, space. The ever expanding universe, not just our knowledge of it expanding but the actual universe expanding, swirling out and out and out. It freaks a few people out, unmoors them a bit.

Those things actually bring me comfort. I'm a very small dot in a much larger picture. I don't really matter in the grand scheme of things. There is no reason to worry so deeply about things that are just a blip on the cosmic scale, or just a drop of water in a vast ocean. Don't fret. You are insignificant. It's always a good centering moment for me.

Of course to the drops of water and other blips around you, you are very significant so make sure you take care of them and don't get all complacent in the ennui of it all.

Memento Mori. Everybody dies. If you knew today was your last day who would you spend it with? What would you do? Why don't you do that more often? Eventually your last day will come and what a shame it would be if you never did the things with the people you most wanted to.

I saw someone talking about Lindsey Graham's passing and their (in my opinion) charitable take that Lindsey thought he would outlast Trump and could find his way back to being a reasonable person after that moment. That he would recenter himself (so to speak) and atone for these years. And then he died. As a lacky to the president. No way back. He will be remembered for awhile as the warmongering, Supreme Court Rapist supporting, lap dog to the Trump administration. And then he will be forgotten.

There is a camper dealership near our house that has one of those GIANT American flags flying. The flags are all supposed to be a half staff this week because of Graham's passing but because their flag is so big they cannot fly it that way without it dragging on the ground. They lowered it a little. Enough that you can see it's sort of lowered, but not enough to be half mast. It's like they said, "Eh, he's dead." Which seems fitting to me for his legacy.

Memento Mori. Everybody dies. Even if you had plans to redeem yourself before it happens.

What do you want the memory of your life to be? What legacy are you leaving?

In my opinion a quiet life that only affected the drops around you is a better legacy than spreading as much poison as you could through the water supply, to beat a metaphor to death. Memento mori for metaphors as well...

Live your life so that the people around you aren't talking about how you thought you could be a better person if you'd only had more time. Live your life doing the things with the people you want to as much as you possibly can. Live you life like you remember that eventually you will die.

Memento Mori.

(and now you know why I have so many skulls in my collections)