Carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero. Sieze the day cause you got no idea what's coming tomorrow. Seems simple enough. I have been catching a little bit of flack for the possible cynicism behind my latest body decoration. I'm a little pissed.
I find there to be something tragic in the willful ignorance of the possibility of demise. If you just pretend that nothing bad will ever happen, you'll be fine. Right? No. And I find that kind of blindness repulsive. Ignoring a problem has never made it go away, from AIDS to apathy, ignorance literally kills people.
To recognize the cruel possibilities of the world is not to embrace them, but rather contextualize their existence next to all the fluffy things. I neither hope, nor wish for anything, for to either hope or wish is to leave success to chance/fate/etc. I take responsibility for the life before and after me, and for that, I place little faith in tomorrow and ensure that today is the greatest day of my life.
What I make of my day and what you make of your day is entirely my and your responsibility. Repeat the last sentence replacing day with life, afterlife, success, or cellar door. I profoundly pity those who live life passively, just as I pity those who are told they cannot do something and actually believe it.
As our bus hurtles through the Redwoods, I find myself stuck on some Polish tourists, dead at the bottom of a French mountain. The story broke my heart this morning. I think my mother would use that as more logic to never leave 85716. I see it as all the more reason to make today worth dying for.
Disregard, if only for a moment, the bubble in which many of us reside. Recognize that today, just like any other day, could be the last day of a fragile existence. Make sure today can bear the responsibility.
xoxo
1 comment:
Good blog.....Yes, I too am saddened by the Polish tourists at the bottom of the Alps...but what I ask myself is why this so often happens to people on their way home for a religious pilgrimage. That's the bigger question. It's often the school bus of children on their way home from a summer at a Baptist revival, or the throngs of people who get trampled on their way to Jerusalem. Hum?
Post a Comment