Carpe Diem

I was inspired to write this note after watching Dead Poets’ Society. It scores 7.8 on IMDB, so I suggest everyone watch it.

Gather your rosebuds while you may

Old Time is still a-flying

And this same flower that flies today

will tomorrow be dying.

“Gather your rosebuds while you may.” The Latin term for that sentiment is Carpe Diem. Seize the day, it means.

Believe it or not, each and everyone of us is one day going to stop breathing, turn cold and die. That’s the cruel reality. I and many of you who might be reading this are at the prime time of our lives. Our lives are polished way too bright to see the harsh underlying reality. We will live now, and I shall say with quite a lavish grandeur, but after a point, all this will stop. You can’t prevent it. Nobody can. And you would be left with just one thing: honour.

You may or may not have done great things. You may or may not have been recognised far and wide. But one thing you’ll surely know is whether you lived your life good or not. Now, there are many ways to define ‘good’. The conventional one is committing minimum sin. No drinking, no gambling, no meat-eating, no cheating. But according to me, your ‘goodness’ should be rated on the basis of how many people you helped benefit others. If interested, read on. Else, move on.

The second part is especially important. Help people benefit others. Remove the latter, and you could also be counting abetting crime as good. All the wise men of yesteryears have propagated one single thing: Wealth is temporary. Name is not. The most famous example that I can illustrate here is Bhagat Singh. He died at a very young age of 24. Whatever we remember him for happened just in a span of 2-3 years.

Moral of the blog: Live your life as if tomorrow was the last. Do something such that you will be remembered and blessed for ages to come. Seize the day. Carpe Diem.

I would like to end this by quoting one of my favourite poets, Alfred Lord Tennyson.

Come my friend.
It’s not too late to seek a newer world.
For my purpose holds to sail beyond the sunset.
And though we are not now that strength
which in old days moved Earth and Heaven.
That which we are we are:
one equal temper of heroic hearts
made weak by time and fate
but strong in will...
to strive to seek to find
and not to yield.