Folkcrafts, Art, and Thoughts

“Because I could not stop for Death –

He kindly stopped for me –

The Carriage held but just Ourselves –

And Immortality.” ― Emily Dickinson

One day while traversing the non-fiction shelves of my local library, I came across a little black book with Joris von Son’s painting Allegory on Human Life adorning the front cover in a wreath of flowers, fruits, and ribbons. The original painting has a skull that sits discretely in the middle. The cover art for this book, however, has the skull placed prominently in front, wrapped with light and color. The book is called Memento Mori: The Art of Contemplating Death to Live a Better Life by Joanna Ebenstein.

The purpose of the book is to provide daily meditations and prompts for reflecting the one human experience no one can escape. It sounds a bit morbid; however, the book is not about drowning in the darkness of eternal damnation, or seeing death as the final stop of a complicated journey. The book, instead, is about handling a complex human emotion and experience and turning it into finding our own personal meaning in life that we can cherish. The book focuses on finding that greater meaning in life that transcends our society’s standard operating procedures.

The phrase Memento Mori is a Latin saying that translates into, “Remember, you will die.”

In the past, it prompted people to get right with God because death can collect us at any time for any reason. Today, we can extend that meaning to: you have this life. How do you wish to spend it before it is over?

As bleak as life can be (for many, more than others), the book serves as a way for me to explore my mortality and see it as a friend rather than a foe. This does not mean that I am ready to kick the bucket, or ready to fling my soul off the next cliff. It does, however, mean that it is not death that frightens me, but rather, the how and the time I have left to enjoy living. The book teaches us how to accept mortality with grace and encourage us to live our lives in the best ways possible. It took me for quite the ride with its journaling prompts, meditations, and rituals. The best part, is that is has “replay value”. The book can be read multiple times as our life experiences continue to mold us into different shapes at different periods in our lives.

Although the book does touch the tip of the iceberg by sharing various cultural ideas, beliefs, and rituals about death, the goal is to not exactly believe in anything, but to “simply do, and then pay attention to what happens…. Practice rather than belief is the key.”

Reflecting on the practice is where the magic happens.