“Carpe diem. Seize the day.”

 

John Keats

“You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island of opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land; there is no other life but this.” 

Henry David Thoreau

"Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today" has been replaced with "Screw it - later". Love him or hate him, Robin Williams did a wonderful job in the movie Dead Poets Society. In that movie he played a teacher of young boys who constantly promoted not just living in the moment, but taking advantage of the moment. In other words, he told them to seize the day!

I must first confess two things - first, I am not as much of a "seize the day" person as I would like to be. Second, I have always admired people who are. My best friend when I was in the Navy stationed in Maine is such a man. Every chance he had to taste another slice of life, he would do it. One day when I asked him why he was so anxious to put so much on his plate, his answer was very simple - he did not want to be on his death bed thinking "coulda, shoulda, woulda". In other words, each day, everyday, he would seize the day!

Now I am not saying we all need to live in the moment and forget about tomorrow - there has to be a happy median. Many parents of people in my generation gave up life experiences to save for tomorrow, to pass on to the next generation. One parent had talked for years about taking his wife up to Alaska on a cruise. They had the money, they had the time. Then his wife got cancer and went though years of treatment and sicknesss. It became impracticable for them to go. Now with his wife gone, and health problems of his own, he will never go - never live that dream. In other words, years ago, he needed take that dream and seize the day!

Last weekend was my 45th year high school reunion. As great as it was to get togther with my old chums, I could not help thinking "where has the time gone?". It just seems like yesterday we were all kids doing the goofy high school stuff. Now we are all at retirement age with many more yesterdays than tomorrows. As we talked and swaped stories about our "bucket lists", I wondered if this was going to be reality, or will our bucket lists remain full at our passing. We have seen so many friends and loved ones pass, we know that life truly turns on a dime and plans and dreams can change in an instant. It reminded me of the saying "Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery and today is a gift - that is why it is called the present". In other words, we need to seize the day!

Some have asked me in the past few years with the economy being so turbulent, where is a safe place to put their money. My answer - no clue. However, I will say this - with the chance of hyper inflation, deflation or even a currency collapse, if you want to buy something or go someplace, my counsel is to do it now. I will continue to plan for tomorrow, but more and more I am living for today. Thank you John Keats for Carp diem - I will always be more and more mindful of the value of seizing the day!