MEMENTO MORI AND CARPE DIEM NOT A CONTRADICTION

For the Stoics, there is no contradiction between the 'memento mori' advocated by Christianity and the more cheerful 'carpe diem'. 'Memento mori' or 'remembering to die' is mainly used in Christianity as a call to prepare for one's own death and the hereafter. The more hedonistic 'carpe diem', 'pluck the day', stands for pleasure in the here and now.

The ancient Stoics paid a lot of attention to death, but they saw it primarily as an incentive to enjoy life more. They saw death as something inevitable that you can and must prepare for. Seneca even considered it to be the ultimate touchstone for life. In a letter to his friend Lucilius he said it like this:

"Every day we die a bit, because every day a new part of our life is snapped off. As we age, our lives are continuously becoming a bit shorter. We already have lost our infancy, our childhood and also our youth has long been gone. Even the moment we live now, we must share with death. A water clock will not be emptied by the last drop that falls out, but by everything that has already flowed out and so a life does not end by the last hour, but by all the hours that have elapsed before. Our last hour is nothing more than the moment when we cease to exist, a moment to which we were already on our way."(Seneca, letters to Lucilius, letter XXIV-20)

So for Stoics, death is something that lasts a lifetime. Or actually it is life itself. Something that continues and needs to be filled in sensibly. Death is nothing special or frightening, it is simply the natural end of all our projects. You may find that it does not make death any less depressing. Yet the Stoics used their sense of death as a tool to experience life more intensely. By remembering that death is approaching with speed, they tried to live much more intensely.

Because death last an eternity and a human life is breathtakingly short, you have to ask yourself: 'Do I have to leave the things undone that I really love to do? Do I have to lead my life in a way others expect me to? Is the accumulation of possessions, fame and pleasures really as important as society wants me to believe?' You can fear death in vain or you can make friends with him and use him to learn to live effectively and happily.

Next time you wonder when you will finally will take control of your life, ask yourself the following question: 'How long will I be dead and how long have I already been dead'? The answer will be eternal. The centuries before your birth you did not exist and the centuries after your death you will not exist either. With that eternal perspective in mind, you can now make your own choice and leave all the gossip, the fear, the question whether you can or cannot afford to do something to those who do have an eternal life. If you do not ask yourself these questions, you are laying your life, your whole life, in the hands of others. Your stay on Earth is short. It is yours, do what you want and make it a treat. Regardless of the length of its existence, Stoic wants to live intensely and happily. By commemorating death, he wants to pick the day.