22. Carpe Diem!
Foreign language, like foreign film, makes one stop and think a bit longer than usual. One pays closer attention or ponders the meaning more, as if to decipher every nuance of body language used to convey the words. I might even suggest that a foreign phrase, like background music, heightens an emotion or moment while it lingers longer in our subconscious to be understood.
Carpe Diem is such a phrase, Latin for "Seize the Day." This phrase is probably the closest intonation the AARP group has for a battle cry, if one exists at all. The irony, of course, is that if one hasn’t heeded the concept long before the age of fifty, it would seem too late, too much time has been wasted. But you know me by now, I don’t believe in the nonsense about ever being too late or having regrets. I prefer to think that each and every day is a new beginning. I especially like that saying, "every 1,000 mile journey begins with one step," or however it goes, you get the idea.
What if I was to propose that every wrong or injustice each of us has ever committed against one’s self or another is synonymous with a 1,000 mile journey. The longer we take to make amends for each wrong, the longer we travel away from our heart's content. A wrong is defined as any kind of slight, no matter how large or small, that involves hurt, whether intentional or non-intentional, including those blunders made out of ignorance and later realized.
Wrongs have a way of taking on a life of their own; once committed, they fester like an open wound in one’s psyche, no matter how adept one is at ignoring it or hiding it deeply in one’s darkest closets. Oftentimes, wrongs have been committed when one doesn’t speak or take any action at all. Have you ever felt discomfort in any situation, unsure, or afraid to speak up when someone else was being unfairly judged or mistreated? A wrong can also work in reverse, how many times have you not spoken up when someone slighted you? I don’t believe one is doing anyone else any favors when they are not called upon to take responsibility for their misdeeds.
I bring this subject up because too many people carry too much emotional baggage around with themselves. No wonder so many, not just seniors, walk around stooped over as if burdened with a heavy load on their backs. Wrongs, whether committed out of fear or anger, whether one is the perpetrator or the perpetratee, never really disappear until one makes amends to one’s spirit in some manner. We all know this at the core of our being.
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