Death is hiding just around the corner.

In a blink of an eye, we’ll all be gone. 100 years compared to infinity is nothing. I talk to my sister all the time…. [I say,] ‘Girl, you better start having some fun. We’re gonna be gone in a minute. You’re gonna look back and say, “Shit, I should have been laughing and now I’m dead.”’ — Jamie Foxx

Now, I’m not Jamie Foxx’s younger sister, but he’s right, I don’t want to look back and say, “Shit, I should have been laughing and now I’m dead.” I guess in that sense, we’re all his sisters. So, thanks Jamie. (And thanks for the movie Django btw.)

Anyway, I’m writing this “Death is hiding around the corner” article because of a friend of mine. Last night I got reminded that life is too short to bury one’s head in the sand and wait for life to bloom. It won’t happen. We need to grab our life by the tail, swing it around, and make it bloom (and probably vomit).

Yes, this is just the desperate attempt to convince my friend to make the bro trip to Rome. Bro, it will be worth it. The office can wait. Money shouldn’t be an issue (remember, we’ll be dead soon enough). And the trip will simply be better with you.

Since this alone probably won’t convince you, here’s a great excerpt from Tim Ferriss’ book Tools of Titans:

On Why Naval [Ravikant] no longer has a quest for immortality:

If you study even the smallest bit of science, you will realize that, for all practical purposes, we are nothing. We’re basically monkeys on a small rock orbiting a small, backwards star in a huge galaxy, which is in an absolutely gigantic universe, which itself may be part of a gigantic multiverse. This universe has been around for probably 10 billion years or more, and will be around for tens of billion years afterwards. So your existence, my existence, is just infinitesimal. It is like a firefly blinking once in the night. Nothing that we do lasts. Eventually you will fade, your works will fade, your children will fade, your thoughts will fade, this planet will fade, the sun will fade… it will all be gone. There are entire civilizations that we remember now with just one or two words like ‘Sumerian’ or ‘Mayan.’ Do you know any Sumerians or Mayans? Do you hold any of them in high regard or esteem? Have they outlived their natural lifespan somehow? No. If you don’t believe in an afterlife, then you [should realize] that this is such a short and precious life, it is really important that you don’t spend it being unhappy. There is no excuse for spending most of your life in misery. You’ve only got 70 years out of the 50 billion or however long the universe is going to be around.

We need to live now. We don’t know what tomorrow will bring. And since we’re just monkeys on a small rock, we have nothing to lose.

We can either live fully now or regret fully when we’re dead.

And yeah, maybe we’ll regret our trip to Rome when we come back slaughtered from Rome’s infamous gladiators, pizzas, wine and flirtatious nightlife…

Who knows?

The old Romans actually had a saying:

Memento Mori — Remember Your Mortality

In that sense, memento mori, my friend.

I’m looking forward to the bro trip with you (and the others).