Carpe Mori
There appears to be a fad, a cult, indeed a requirement for seizing the day. Now.
It’s all Horace’s fault. He impeached us (Odes 23 BC) to “seize the day, trusting as little as possible to the future” (carpe diem quam minimum credula postero).
Little did Horace know how his words would be twisted, manipulated and marketed on Amazon by business gurus and self-help charlatans alike.
Being here now and immediate gratification apparently ensures a happy and fulfilled life.
Instant updates on Insta(nt)gram. Tweets from everywhere, telling everyone, or no one in particular, everything or nothing of interest.
If you can’t trust the future, why bother investing for it?
Why? Because the perpetual motion of the day seizer, the “carpediemist”, is a mere cloak. It is hiding in clear sight.
Hiding from the inevitable. From the questions that have no answers (save for a Kierkegaardian leap of faith). Hiding from the fear that taking time to reflect may lead to a questioning of things that we simply don’t want to, or tell ourselves we don’t have time to, challenge.
Hiding from the difficult conversation. From the fear of rejection. Or even our unstated desires. In essence, hiding from our real selves and the fact that we will all die.
The mistake of carpe diem is in the modern interpretation of it as an imperative. An end in itself. The interpretation that, as tomorrow may never come, I may as well indulge, unbridled, today and every day.
There is undoubtedly a place for spontaneity. There is a real pleasure in consummation. This is no treatise for hair suits and monastic isolation.
Blink, by Malcolm Gladwell, suggests that deep learning is hugely effective for making seemingly accurate snap decisions. Can’t Hurt Me, by David Goggins, proposes a rather more extreme, perhaps fringe, self-abusive (even rather scary) form of self-fulfilment.
The essence is not the Blink. It is the deep learning. It is the investment that delivers the excellence.
As Samuel Goldwyn said “give me a couple of years and I’ll make that actress an overnight success”.
Carpe diem is about the acknowledgement that there are thousands of todays to come, tomorrow. Tomorrow starts today. Seizing today is about investing today into a better tomorrow.
Rejecting the lure of a cream cake every day for healthier carpe diems tomorrow. Putting away a pension, recognizing that a sixty-five-year-old carpe diem, in an overcrowded nursing home, smelling of cabbage, eating baked beans, somewhere far from home, being helped to wash by a disinterested nurse, because it was all spent today, is sub-optimal.
Investment into today ensures many carpe diems tomorrow before the ultimate carpe mori.
It’s the reason all good West End shows build to a rousing finale.
The investment relies upon a commitment to question what do I really want from life? What is the elusive “it” that I am after?
It relies on a belief that we are permitted to fail along that quest. Indeed, trial, error and learning are all part of the process.
Carpe diem is really an entreaty to invest in the better self, not in selfishness. It is about a clear acceptance of the imminence and permanence of death. Not about pretending to ignore death through a series of shallow distractions.
“To dust we shall return”. There is no escaping it. No matter how much money, how many drugs, how many magnums or illicit affairs we have or what wristwatch we wear today. Sorry.
It is only by engaging with this hard truth, as a metaphor for living, that we can seize the life we want, fully. Carpe mori.
It is the investment that enhances the ongoing pleasure.
There is no short cut. The callouses on the hands. The rising through the ranks. The doing of things for others not just for oneself.
Contentment, if that is your goal, is ultimately derived from confronting and dealing with the difficult issues that really concern us. In life. In business. In our relationships.
Understand, accept, invest, act, enjoy. Really enjoy. Celebrate the pleasures resulting from and during the journey.
The question is whether “it” is about deep sustained cumulative contentment or momentary gratification.
Carpe diem is about investing today for many better days tomorrow, in full recognition that the long and never-ending night will surely and inevitably follow.
WITH GRATITUDE AND LOVE TO PAM AND PHIL
Al Insky
September 2019