momento mori

"The nearer she came to death, the more, by some perversity of nature, did she enjoy living." Ellen Glasgow

Recently, I was looking for a birthday present for my mid-twenties single son and happened on some well-designed t-shirts themed with skulls.  I enjoyed the artwork, but did not purchase one because the images turned me off. My dismissive thinking took the path of classifiying these as morbid and promoting some kind of evil.

 Momemto mori: "Remember, you will die" or " Remember your mortality" in one tradition is a genre of art that is specifically created to function as a helpful reminder of our impending death and, as Ellen Glasgow helps us see, will aid us in living fully.


I had a personal "momento mori" over the weekend watching the father of my two oldest daughters succumb to a ravaging cancer. All the distractions of the daily frenzy and duties ceased in attending to that final suffering and that final sigh. A clarity formed about what is worth my attention.


Absolute attention is something we seek as artists.  We want to be free of those external and internal encumbrances that speak of hurry, intimidation, self-exaltation and a host of other insidious killers of originality and works that speak.


The  "momento mori", then, is not darkness, but actually serves to  harness those truly dark entities that keep me from creating. It paradoxically puts it all in proper order.


Maybe I will get the t-shirt for myself.