Carpe mediae aetatis? What?!?! Think, "carpe diem". Now think, "midlife". Put it together, and the closest literal translation I've come up with is "carpe mediae aetatis". I like this better... Carpe midlife! It has a nice ring to it, don't you think? Carpe midlife. Carpe mediae aetatis. Carpe Diem + Midlife = Carpe Midlife I'm pretty sure my middle school Latin (and even the able wizardry ...
Memento mori
It’s Up to You
"What you do with your life and what you find enjoyable with your life is up to you. And I think it's wonderful if you can follow things that you like to do... I like waking up in the morning because I know I have another day." ~ Yvonne Dowlen (Source: National Geographic) I started my day with a joyful and inspiring 90-year-old figure skater named Yvonne Dowlen. Rather than rehash the creative ...
Grief, Love and Memento Mori
Excuse, if you would, the slightly morbid tenor of today's post about grief and love and memento mori. Or skip it! But if you stay and read you just may feel the rush of life and enthusiasm that I'm experiencing. An intriguing and new-to-me connection has been made — an embrace of love and memento mori — that is especially resonant now as I struggle with the terribly premature loss of a friend, a ...
Memento Mori, Danse Macabre & Vanitas
Memento mori. Remember that you will die. Us moderns don’t like to think too much about death. It’s a bit too depressing and morbid for our think-positive sensibilities. Our culture is devoted to perpetuating the lie that you can stay young forever and your life will go on and on. But for men living in antiquity all the way up until the beginning of the 20th century, rather ...
Memento Mori by A. D. Hope
I noticed today the loosely wrinkled skin On legs and arms, no defect, no disease But simply signs of time, the body's decrease Of power and of repair as these begin The ultimate indications of old age. ~ A.D. Hope ("Memento Mori" via Australian Poetry Library) I return again to memento mori, not to wax morose or moribund but to remind myself to laugh and dance and take nervous risks and strain ...
Memento Mori by Billy Collins
It's time I return to the topic of memento mori, no? Billy Collins has [at least] twice taken up the "Memento Mori" title/topic. "There is no need for me to keep a skull on my desk, to stand with one foot up on the ruins of Rome, or wear a locket with the sliver of a saint’s bone. It is enough to realize that every common object in this sunny little room will outlive me– the carpet, ...