Memento Mori
Have you ever considered how fragile life is? In a blink of an eye, everything can change.
Every day, we take risks without a second thought—riding our two-wheelers at 100 km/hr with little protection, trusting that today won’t be the day it all ends.
We never know when we’ll suffer the wrath of nature, like what’s happening in California. People who were millionaires are suddenly without homes and, in some cases, without their lives.
But we still have a filter in our brain that makes us forget this quickly, and soon we’ll be thinking about that one mistake we made in high school instead of sleeping. This isn’t bad—it’s a vital mechanism; otherwise, we would all go crazy.
In a world of food delivery and instant gratification, we’re lulled into believing life is safe and controllable. But it’s not.
There’s a scene in the book Shogun where the protagonist nearly kills himself after committing seppuku. After surviving, he experiences life vividly, which had been rather dull before.
When we realize life is fleeting, petty arguments and grudges seem trivial.What I’m trying to convey through this rambling is that we should all be a little more grateful and live with awareness.