What a great piece. Outside of the military (and some traditional religions) our society appears to completely lack any form of Memento Mori.
The part starting "What then? Our lives are bounded..." reminded me instantly of the story attributed to Bede, about the sparrow in winter flying suddenly in and out of the warm mead hall: "The sparrow, flying in at one door and immediately out at another, whilst he is within, is safe from the wintry tempest, but after a short space of fair weather, he immediately vanishes out of your sight, passing from winter to winter again. So this life of man appears for a little while, but of what is to follow or what went before we know nothing at all."
Bede's story is beautiful. In the days before smart phones, it was probably easier to spend a few minutes lingering on the actions of a bird and derive some life changing lesson from it.
What a great piece. Outside of the military (and some traditional religions) our society appears to completely lack any form of Memento Mori.
The part starting "What then? Our lives are bounded..." reminded me instantly of the story attributed to Bede, about the sparrow in winter flying suddenly in and out of the warm mead hall: "The sparrow, flying in at one door and immediately out at another, whilst he is within, is safe from the wintry tempest, but after a short space of fair weather, he immediately vanishes out of your sight, passing from winter to winter again. So this life of man appears for a little while, but of what is to follow or what went before we know nothing at all."
Thanks Sam, really enjoying your writing.
Much appreciated, Greg.
Bede's story is beautiful. In the days before smart phones, it was probably easier to spend a few minutes lingering on the actions of a bird and derive some life changing lesson from it.
Thank you for sharing.