Pluck it, love each other, cheers!
‘Carpe diem’ is not Latin for “seize the day”.
“The more pedantic of Latin scholars may very well seize you by the throat if you suggest that translation. “Carpe” translates literally as “pluck”, with particular reference to the picking of fruit, so a more accurate rendition is “enjoy the day, pluck the day when it is ripe,” states The Phrase Finder.
It goes on to say: “The extended version of the phrase carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero' translates as ‘pluck the day’, trusting as little as possible in the future'.”
Dictionaries Collins and Merriam-Webster appear to agree that Quintus Horatius Flaccus, AKA “Horace” intended carpe diem to mean enjoy the pleasures of the moment without concern for the future.
Why am I blathering on about this? Because it is Christmas and, but for the dreary perfectionists, most of us are gathering the chickens and trying to get them to the dinner table on Christmas Eve. There will be feathers plucked aplenty. How do you get a grumpy, bitter, wounded, frightened, family to the table?
Who will make the first move when there is so-o-o-o much ego and petty pride at stake?
Reproachment and genuine reconciliation is the goal, but, (and I will deny it if you quote me), there is always time for the professional apology where you take the slightly higher ground, and make the call to say “sorree”! (even if you don’t really believe it) and then see if the other can join you on this manky, but practical ethical platform!
Who knows, it might be the first step out of the impasse.
There is another way to pluck the family chickens to get them moving in the right direction.
It is simply to see life for what it is. Carpe diem: you are alive today, and believe me, tomorrow will be very different.
Now don’t freak out.
We are all going to expire though not today, but the following will make you sound knowledgeable when Christmas conversation has dried up.
The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), which is followed by the few remaining sane states, announced recently that based on a plethora of data research and models, the earth and its atmosphere is 1 degree (0.98) hotter than it was before industrialisation started in 1850.
This is very bad news and should help you give up on the mompling and enjoy that scrumptious Christmas lunch like it’s your last.
This year:
● Sea ice in the Arctic (North Pole) dropped in size by 28% and for us in the South, the Antarctic by 5%;
● In Africa so-called “climate events” (droughts) last year brought hunger and malnutrition to 59m in 24 countries;
● Two million people in the world were displaced by hurricanes, cyclones and droughts;
● In Somalia, the UN found that only 26% of 2.6m refugee “displacements” were caused by war. Flooding (43%) and drought (29%) caused most of the trouble;
● Heat waves caused 1,600 deaths. Three were 100 wildfires in Greece and California and Germany lost 43% of its maize crop and 21% of its potatoes. On June 26 in Quriyat, Oman, the night temperature was 42.6° and in July the day hit 51.3° in Ouargla, Algeria, the highest ever there. The Camp Fire north of San Francisco was the most destructive in US history, killing 79. On November 3, 1.35m hectares of British Columbia went up in flames – the most area to burn there ever;
● In Japan, 1,853mm of rain fell on Shihoku island over 11 days; and
● Cold fronts were also exaggerated and extreme. It went to -7° in Wales, and Arosa peak in Switzerland had a 5m blanket of snow, the second-highest ever;
The final nail in this horror story, is the WMO repeat of a vital finding of the UN’s IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), where all global climate science and data are gathered and analysed.
The IPCC and WMO found that since 2000 20% of global warming had been caused by “solar and volcanic” activity, and 80% of it by “human-induced warming”.
Now here comes the dessert; banana flambé: While the rest of the world has heated up by 1 degree, we in SA are headed for the braai.
We are heating up at twice this rate, and by the turn of the century our temperature will be up by 5 degrees.
I worked it out that my children’s grandchildren will be toast.
So my suggestion (unless you are all climate activists struggling to get those in power to turn down the gasses causing all this heat), is to stop plucking your fruit from the Christmas pudding, and rather seize your beer by the throat and wine by the stem, grab the hand of your now-loved and only ones, give them a fat kiss or a hug and say cheers!