Carpe Diem literally the term means "pluck the day," however it is commonly accepted as: "Seize the day." I have been wanted to write on this for some time. Some is not the right word here, but for the sake of good writing, I will let it pass.
History.
Originally it comes from the Roman poet Hoeace's Odes. Although the term itself is a top-notch, I mean the meaning behind it, stuff. But there is another thing: it was written around 23 BCE. We are talking about 20 centuries, 2,000+ years. So, human beings have been thinking on this phenomenon since the arrival.
Anyways, I came across this term watching "Dead Poets Society. The unconventional professor - Mr. Keating - uses it encourage his students to live fully, make their own choices and not waste their lives waitingn for the perfect moment.
In simple words: just be YOU.
Now before I give my opinion on this being "you" part. We need to understand that Carpe Diem does not necessarily mean doing whatever comes to mind, ignoring responsibilities or making impulsive decisions. Like I do not like you, so let me kill you. I hate this country, let us bomb them (no warmongers were hurt in saying this). It means understanding that the day we have - we usually name it present or today - is the only day we can actually do something with. Remember that quote from Kung Fu Panda, when Master Oogway said:
"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, and today is a gift, that is why they call it present."
I say a convenient explanation for a word that already existed, but surely a good one.
However, there is a trouble. Like we have become remarkably good at postponing our lives. In search for perfection, which itself is an illusion, we are ruining seize the day approach. We wait for the right: job, situations, person, weather, and what not. We keep on fixing our furniture of lives, convincing ourselves that once everything is in its proper place; we will finally sit down and enjoy everything. Such moment does come, we call it retirement. But you know the problem with it, right? Because life always has infinite humbling tricks. It acts in binary, sometimes in our favour, other against us.
And this is where Carpe Diem becomes valuable. Not as an instruction to live recklessly, but as a reminder that life is not a rehearsal for some grand performance that begins later. Later does come, but we are never truly sure about that part. But the present is here, right at this moment.
The irony is just that we spend so much time trying to secure a future that we forget to live in the only place where that future can actually be built. All we need is a balanced approach. An approach which serves the I and them.
Carpe Diem, then.
Not because tomorrow is guaranteed to be terrible. Not because the world is ending. But because even if tomorrow arrives exactly as we hope, it will still be another day we have to learn how to live.
And maybe, the real tragedy is not that life is short, which I say is not. It is that we can spend so much of it waiting to become the person who finally gets to live it. For that choice is all your, no one is forcing you to do so. This, itself, is the beauty of the term "Carpe Diem." Seize the day as you prefer.
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Peace 🕊
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