I've been drawn to
Memento Mori lately. It's a phrase that's almost romantic, even though the subject is much grimmer than anything love has to offer. Gretchen Rubin examined Memento Mori in her book 'The Happiness Project' and so I felt inspired to do something similar.
A Memento Mori is a keepsake reminder that we are all mortal.
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| Dante's 'Inferno' |
Oxford Dictionaries defines the phrase as such;
"an object serving as a warning or reminder of death, such as a skull."
in Latin -
'remember (that you have) to die'.
But where does one turn to find their own memento?
As it's rather macabre, I thought reading about the dead would help me feel inspired. I turned to Dante's 'Inferno' to learn about the circles of hell. It didn't help. Reading about the gruesome torture of sinners isn't nearly as inspiring as one might think.
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| My Journals |
So I turned to my own journals. From 2008 to 2012 I kept journals where I wrote lines, poems, paragraphs, lyrics that helped me to deal with the external and internal struggles I faced. These too, at times, are often macabre. Every pain, every hurt, every moment of self-hatred is conveyed in writing. It's troublesome to read the sombre tone of the writings. I truly was someone without hope. I was someone who recorded their wish for death in writing.
My journals got me thinking some more about Memento Mori.
