My family has been through a difficult year and we started talking more openly about death and impermanence, which has been healing, but now my teenager is using memento mori as justification for risky behavior and shutting down conversations about consequences by saying 'life is short.' We don't know how to honor the wisdom of mortality without enabling recklessness.
More people experience this than they realize.
Death awareness meant to bring wisdom is being weaponized to avoid responsibility and consequence.
“Where Are You with Stoic memento mori — remember you will die?”
If this sounds familiar, the Library can help you find the bigger picture.