Their names stick out to us. The athletes we remember peaking in our teenage years. The athletes we remember our favorite teams drafting. The first politician we voted for. The first author whose books we eagerly read as they came out. Lorne Michels, the creator of Saturday Night Live, has talked about how most everyone's favorite era of SNL is the years they were in high school—the stars are burned into their minds, the best characters impossible to forget.
What's haunting though, is to think about where all these all-time greats are now. Is it hitting you that the athletes who were once your age, in their prime when you were in your prime are now all retiring or retired? Even most of the coaches are gone! "All those people who came into the world with you and have already left it," Marcus Aurelius noted in Meditations toward the end of his life.
Life is a procession of people leaving the stage, having their moment and then that moment ending. We talked a while back about that song lyrics which notes that all the stars of classic movies are dead now. We've mentioned Seneca's shock when he sees the trees planted in his boyhood starting to wither and die. The same thing that happens to athletes—in an unusually sped up way—is happening only slightly more slowly to us. The fifteen minutes of fame of our favorite celebrities is just a magnified version of our own brief professional peak before a decline and replacement.
We are not exempt, if anything we are more vulnerable, our legacies less pronounced. This should humble us, give us perspective and also give us a sense of priorities. Be here now. Enjoy it while it's there.
P.S. Elsewhere in Meditations, Marcus Aurelius wrote, "You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think." It was a personal reminder to live a life of virtue NOW, to be here, in the present, NOW—a message we should all keep close. That's why we created the Memento Mori challenge coin for you to do exactly that. Holding death close in this way—as something to remember will happen to you, as it will to us all—isn't 'depressing,' but helps give your life meaning, a sense of clarity and priority. You focus only on what truly matters and ditch the rest. Start living in the NOW and grab your Memento Mori coin today!
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