I read in the news last week that a British teenager died on board a train in Thailand. Apparently he had a undiagnosed and rare thingy that caused a blood vessel in his brain to burst. It’s also hard or impossible to diagnose it until it happens, which is a little too late. It’s triggered by stress and excitement, and the coroner thinks he was too excited about his backpacking trip in Thailand.
That’s really sad, and a unfortunate reminder to constantly re-evaluate your philosophy and principles in life. The most pragmatic philosophy will always be don’t worry, be happy! Live in the moment, memento mori and carpe diem! (remember death(your mortality) + seize the day)
It’s nice if you roughly get the meaning of these phrases, but if you don’t, wikipedia is an excellent place to start as the ideological concepts of memento mori is rather vast. But for all you people that are allergic to too many words, here is a picture that will help:
I bet the picture is full of allegories that I won’t even try to explore, but what you can see is rather clear: death paying unexpected visits on two ancient partygoers.
As for carpe diem, that doesn’t need much explanation: a popular saying of biblical origin says it all: eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die.
I first came across these latin phrases while researching for a paper on baroque architecture years ago. I eventually spent a whole afternoon alone in the eerie PAM Library in KL reading, though my fascination with the socio-cultural events of post-Renaissance Europe didn’t really contribute to the essay.
It’s a tough period of economic recession and many problems in the world, but here’s a friendly reminder to cheer up and be happy!
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