One of my favorite movies is Dead Poets Society. This movie shaped my adolescence in a similar fashion to Catcher in the Rye, A Separate Peace and the Chocolate War. This movie introduced me to the term ‘Carpe Diem’, ‘Seize the Day’ in English. It must have been the first time I considered my life as a finite resource as its every word is etched in my memory.
I often catch myself not enjoying the moment, but reviewing the past or considering the future. It is hard to focus on the now. I have every reason to live in this very moment, but struggle to remind myself of the beauty of today. MOST importantly on the gift of my traveling companions whose love and kindness I do not deserve.
Over the years I am ever reminded if this scene and the fact that this is a one way trip and its hard to know when we’ll be disembarking. Some people choose to judge harshly those who do choose the time of their disembarkation. I say that I have not walked in your shoes, nor you in mine…and no one lives in my mind, but me. We can be kind, we can be supportive, we can love one another…but rushing to judgement only hurts those that are left behind and they will do plenty of that to themselves. Let us judge nothing but ourselves and in that only the question, ‘Did I love them well?’.
PS: To Mr. Keeting: May you have safe travels and peace at journey’s end.
The Basement of Time 