April 2, 2020
Memento mori
In our society thinking and, God forbid, talking about death has a bad vibe to it. Try and you risk being locked up in a padded room “for your own safety.” But I can tell from personal experience that thinking about death on a regular basis can actually improve the quality of your life.
It is hard to pinpoint an exact moment when I became aware of my mortality. Of course, even as a kid I would overhear adults talking about such-and-such who died of (a) heart attack or was hit by a car. Still, in my mind dying and other bad stuff could only happen to other people, not to me or my family. It didn’t take long to break the illusion though. Human existence is full of tragedy, and mine wasn’t going to be an exception. Nevertheless, it is not my misfortunes that I want to talk about but our refusal to acknowledge how brief and fragile human life is.
The average life expectancy is 67 years. That looks like a lot of time! But only at a first glance. After subtracting the time we spend sleeping, we might get close to 45 years of “productive” time that you can use as you please. And that’s only if you get lucky and live until 67. As the mysterious professor Woland from Bulgakov’s “The Master and Margarita” justly remarked: “Yes, man is mortal, but that would be only half the trouble. The worst of it is that he's sometimes unexpectedly mortal – there's the trick!” Pause for a moment and think about it. Can you be 100% sure that you will live through this day? Of course, chances are in your favor. After all, we are not in the midst of a war; most of us have access to sufficient amounts of food and drinking water; medicine progresses with each day. In other words, life has never been better! And still… A flaw in your car’s break system, a reckless fellow driver – and instead of your friends, you are meeting with the Creator tonight.
I’m not trying to spread panic here, let’s leave this role to media: that’s their line of work. I just want you to realize that only one point in time matters: right now. It doesn’t matter what you did yesterday or what you’re planning on doing tomorrow. Unless there is a time-travelling DeLorean in your garage, you can’t go back in time and change the past. As for the future, I hope we all agree at this point that there might be no future. We should cast away both our regrets and our hopes and start enjoying the present moment.
This simple realization was a turning point in my life. During the last few years not many things could bring me joy. I used to love reading before, but lately I couldn’t find anything that would keep my interest for more than 5 pages. The same goes for movies and sports. At first, I couldn’t understand what was up. Now I believe I found the answer. While doing those things I wasn’t really present. Even though my eyes were staring at the screen, my thoughts were somewhere far away. I was either daydreaming or worrying about the future. It’s no wonder I couldn’t enjoy anything, because I wasn’t really paying attention to what I was doing in the first place.
/Comment: I can’t for the life of me finish this article. I got completely stuck and feel like I keep repeating the same thing time and again throughout the text. Therefore I’m posting it as it is./
In our society thinking andor, God forbid, talking about death has a bad vibe toassociated with it.
Try and you risk being locked up in a padded room “for your own safety.” ButHowever, I can tellsay from personal experience that thinking about death on a regular basis can actually improve the quality of your life.
"I can tell you from personal experience" or simply "I can say..."
It is hard to pinpoint anthe exact moment when I became aware of my mortality.
Definite vs indefinite articles. You are referring to a specific moment "the moment that you realized". Or, "There was a moment when I became aware of my mortality but it is hard to pinpoint it"
Of course, even as a kid, I would overhear adults talking about sucho-and-sucho who died of (a)a heart attack or washad been hit by a car.
Such-and-such is often a thing, not a person.
It didn’t take long to break theis illusion though.
You are referencing the illusion in the previous sentence, so the use of "this" is appropriate. Or "to break the illusion of safety"
Human existence is full of tragedy, and mine wasn’t going to beis not an exception.
Nevertheless, it is not my own misfortunes that I want to talk about but our refusal to acknowledge how brief and fragile human life is.
The average life expectancy is 67 years.
But only at a first glance.
And still… A(all it takes is) a flaw in your car’s breake system, or a reckless fellow driver – and instead of your friends, you are meeting with the Creator tonight, instead of your friends.
You are missing a verb in the first part of the sentence.
It doesn’t matter what you did yesterday or what you’re planning on doing tomorrow.
Unless there is a time-travelling DeLorean in your garage, you can’t go back in time and change the past.
As for the future, I hope we all agree at this point that there might be no futurnot be one.
Or: "that there might not be one"
This simple realization was a turning point in my life.
During the last few years, there were not many things could bring me joy.
I used to love reading before, but lately I couldn’t find anything that would keep my interest for more than 5 pages.
If you use "before" in this context, you need to an event/time. "before I moved here" or "before she died"
The same goes for movies and sports.
Feedback
You start several sentences with "And" and "But". Typically, these are used to join two sentences to form a single sentence.
You use semicolons and colons almost interchangeably but their usage is region based (USA, England, Canada, etc), so I didn't correct those.
It is an interesting subject. You did well in the beginning presenting a point and supporting it was evidence or an example. I can see you got stuck at some point, but what you wrote was good.
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I was either daydreaming or worrying about the future. |
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Memento mori |
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In our society thinking and, God forbid, talking about death has a bad vibe to it. In our society thinking |
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Try and you risk being locked up in a padded room “for your own safety.” But I can tell from personal experience that thinking about death on a regular basis can actually improve the quality of your life. Try and you risk being locked up in a padded room “for your own safety.” "I can tell you from personal experience" or simply "I can say..." |
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It is hard to pinpoint an exact moment when I became aware of my mortality. It is hard to pinpoint Definite vs indefinite articles. You are referring to a specific moment "the moment that you realized". Or, "There was a moment when I became aware of my mortality but it is hard to pinpoint it" |
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Of course, even as a kid I would overhear adults talking about such-and-such who died of (a) heart attack or was hit by a car. Of course, even as a kid, I would overhear adults talking about s Such-and-such is often a thing, not a person. |
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Still, in my mind dying and other bad stuff could only happen to other people, not to me or my family. |
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It didn’t take long to break the illusion though. It didn’t take long to break th You are referencing the illusion in the previous sentence, so the use of "this" is appropriate. Or "to break the illusion of safety" |
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Human existence is full of tragedy, and mine wasn’t going to be an exception. Human existence is full of tragedy |
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Nevertheless, it is not my misfortunes that I want to talk about but our refusal to acknowledge how brief and fragile human life is. Nevertheless, it is not my own misfortunes that I want to talk about but our refusal to acknowledge how brief and fragile human life is. |
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The average life expectancy is 67 years. This sentence has been marked as perfect! |
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That looks like a lot of time! |
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But only at a first glance. But only at |
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After subtracting the time we spend sleeping, we might get close to 45 years of “productive” time that you can use as you please. |
|
And that’s only if you get lucky and live until 67. |
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As the mysterious professor Woland from Bulgakov’s “The Master and Margarita” justly remarked: “Yes, man is mortal, but that would be only half the trouble. |
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The worst of it is that he's sometimes unexpectedly mortal – there's the trick!” Pause for a moment and think about it. |
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Can you be 100% sure that you will live through this day? |
|
Of course, chances are in your favor. |
|
After all, we are not in the midst of a war; most of us have access to sufficient amounts of food and drinking water; medicine progresses with each day. |
|
In other words, life has never been better! |
|
And still… A flaw in your car’s break system, a reckless fellow driver – and instead of your friends, you are meeting with the Creator tonight. And still… You are missing a verb in the first part of the sentence. |
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I’m not trying to spread panic here, let’s leave this role to media: that’s their line of work. |
|
I just want you to realize that only one point in time matters: right now. |
|
It doesn’t matter what you did yesterday or what you’re planning on doing tomorrow. This sentence has been marked as perfect! |
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Unless there is a time-travelling DeLorean in your garage, you can’t go back in time and change the past. This sentence has been marked as perfect! |
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As for the future, I hope we all agree at this point that there might be no future. As for the future, I hope we all agree at this point that there might Or: "that there might not be one" |
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We should cast away both our regrets and our hopes and start enjoying the present moment. |
|
This simple realization was a turning point in my life. This sentence has been marked as perfect! |
|
During the last few years not many things could bring me joy. During the last few years, there were not many things could bring me joy. |
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I used to love reading before, but lately I couldn’t find anything that would keep my interest for more than 5 pages. I used to love reading If you use "before" in this context, you need to an event/time. "before I moved here" or "before she died" |
|
The same goes for movies and sports. This sentence has been marked as perfect! |
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At first, I couldn’t understand what was up. |
|
Now I believe I found the answer. |
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While doing those things I wasn’t really present. |
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Even though my eyes were staring at the screen, my thoughts were somewhere far away. |
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It’s no wonder I couldn’t enjoy anything, because I wasn’t really paying attention to what I was doing in the first place. |
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/Comment: I can’t for the life of me finish this article. |
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I got completely stuck and feel like I keep repeating the same thing time and again throughout the text. |
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Therefore I’m posting it as it is./ |
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