Memento Mori

I have been using Omarchy Quattro and just love it. It is this weird combination of serious enough that you know you could do your best work in it and just… fun. DHH wants people to not just use it, but to love it, so there are little Easter eggs like custom ASCII art and even a built-in Memento Mori calendar.

Memento Mori

I have always loved the concept of Memento Mori. It just reminds me that this life thing is all temporary so I should do my best at whatever I am doing, be kind to everyone, and not take myself too seriously. We need to enjoy every second of this wild ride.

What it really gives me is perspective. And stumbling upon the memento mori calendar made me think about my other two favorite ways to measure life and give me that similar perspective.

Football math

Any of my close friends reading this know that I don’t study football like most middle-aged dudes. I like it, but don’t obsess over it. However, because so many people do watch and love it, it makes for a ubiquitous analogy for life. Think of your parents — if their life was a football game, what quarter are they in right now? You may not know how many weeks, months, or years you have with them, but they are probably in the 4th quarter. After that, the game is over.

I talk to a lot of people that are either estranged from their parents or just in some fight with one or both of their parents. Maybe their parents even deserve it! But football math reminds you that it doesn’t matter who is at fault. This game is going to end for all of us and we don’t always know when. Say sorry and leave it all on the field. The most regretful people I know are the ones that didn’t say what they wanted to say before the game ended.

By football math, I have just come out of the locker room, kicking off the 3rd quarter. Let’s try to make the second half of this game better than the first!

Clocks

I love clocks — especially analog clocks. The fact that something as precious and complex as time can be communicated on some watches and clocks where it is just a circle and hands with no numbers shows how ubiquitous that representation of time has become. Minutes, hours, days, years, all represented with circular gears. I just love it.

So if your life was a clock where you started at midnight and died at midnight, what time is it for you? And more importantly, how do you want to spend the rest of your day?

For me, it is just after lunch. I may be a morning person in general, but when it comes to life, I am just hitting my stride. I mean, before breakfast I was a lost child, lunch was awesome, and I still have a lot of daylight left! I just need to make sure I spend my time wisely before it is time to head to bed.