Spilled Milk

One of my favorite films of all time, Dead Poets Society follows the journey of a group of boys at their elite, private high school. Inspired by one of their teachers, the boys find themselves encapsulated by poetry and the arts.

In the film, the teacher reads to them an excerpt from Robert Herrick’s To the Virgins, Make Much of Time:

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying;
And this same flower that smiles today
Tomorrow will be dying

Herrick’s call to action and his allusion to the certainty of death spark readers to seize the day, as the lives we live are ultimately short. The finality of death should be enough to convince us to live a bountiful life.

Having recently completed Mark Manson’s The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, this poem and movie all came rushing back to me. Like Herrick, Manson makes a point of demonstrating the one certainty in life: death. In the spirit of carpe diem, Manson urges each reader to live with death in mind, not holding back because of what others may think.

So recently a word I say to myself a lot is rosebuds. Gather ye rosebuds. I will die one day, but before then, I’ll have sucked this life dry of its pain, pleasures, and beauties. Drinking the blood of life until my teeth are stained red and there is life no more.