Welcome Back!
I refuse to end the day with a strict accounting of the tasks completed, looking over my store of checked-off to-dos like Ebeneezer Scrooge counting his coins.
When I retire to bed, I want to remember the experiences I lived.
A motto of Stoics (both ancient and modern) is memento mori—remember you will die. The idea is to focus your attention on your mortality so that you will make to most of each day (carpe diem—seize the day—is a Latin phrase that ancient Stoics loved but that modern Stoics find too cringey.)
However, the phrase memento mori has become a shorthand for hustle culture and productivity porn. I prefer the phrase memento vitae—remember to live.
Living doesn’t mean being productive. It means being present, noticing the world and your place in it.
Remembering to live doesn’t mean you never do productive things. But it does mean you know why you are doing the productive things. You are never busy just to be busy. Remembering to live is opting out of the capitalist death cult and opting into a life where time is wobbly.
Today will end no matter what you do or do not do. Wouldn’t you rather remember what you experienced today than what boxes you checked off?
Memento vitae!
Flashback
Here is a link to a post I made a year ago. The art is pretty embarrassing, but you can see the beginning of what the newsletter is now.
My favorite part of that post is the essay, Don’t Forget to Live, where I explain why I prefer the phrase memento vitae to memento mori in more detail.
Be the weird you want to see in the world!
Cheers,
Jason
P.S. For anyone counting, this is day 8 of 14 in my poetry comic challenge.
I like this a lot. One question I was asked before that really stuck with me: "are you living a life that's worthy of your death?"
And I also enjoyed looking through your flashback post. I love how your pieces have evolved!
I love the art... and the sentiment! Vitae indeed!