Words of wisdom from Scottish comedian Billy Connolly

I couldn't find the exact source of this quote, so this may be more paraphrase than quote. There's also this article from 2019:

https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/17949861.billy-connolly-scottish-story/

Quote

The Scots and the Irish – Connolly is of Irish stock as his surname tells you – have a deep cultural quirk of respecting death, but never taking it too seriously. Connolly will be keeping up that tradition. He’s told his wife Pamela Stephenson that when he dies he wants an epitaph in tiny writing so visitors will have to step close to his gravestone to read it. When they can finally see it, they’ll discover it says: “You’re standing on my b***s”.

Quote from Cassius

that's what forums are for

Quote from Cassius

"don't take death seriously," or something more like "take death very seriously and realize when you're gone you're done, but at the same time don't let it get you down."

I'll point out that Connolly says, "I think people take death too seriously." "Too seriously" to me rings of being obsessive about death or, conversely, obsessively doing everything to not think about it or talk about or acknowledge one's own mortality, to live in denial. We have to take death "seriously," but that seriousness need not be obsessive or morbid and shouldn't be fearful. Look death in the eye, say " Not today," and commit to finding the pleasure available in your life.

Quote from Cassius

I do think that Epicurus would agree that laughing is one way to make peace with the inevitable. Would he say that it's "the best" way?

There is no best way for everyone, but laughing is definitely one available component for everyone. That's why there's such a thing as dark comedy.

Going off that article I added to the first post, it seems "respecting" death vs "taking death too seriously" are ways of expressing what I'm trying to get at. As Seneca wrote that Epicurus instructed people to "meditare mortem," we can to think or reflect upon, consider, contemplate, ponder, meditate (upon) death without it becoming an obsession, a neurosis, an overbearing fear. Acknowledge, respect it, realize it's omnipresence in our future, but get on with living.

I'm reminded of Gus in Lonesome Dove:

“You see, life in San Francisco is still just life. If you want any one thing too badly, it’s likely to turn out to be a disappointment. The only healthy way to live life is to learn to like all the little everyday things – like a sip of good whiskey in the evening, a soft bed, a glass of buttermilk, or a feisty gentleman like myself.”

and Shawshank Redemption

"I guess it comes down to a simple choice, really. Get busy living or get busy dying"

That last one encapsulates the sentiment in the letter to Menoikeus.

Quote from Godfrey

Of course there's VS41:

One must laugh and seek wisdom and tend to one's home life and use one's other goods, and always recount the pronouncements of true philosophy.

That's one of the good translations! Thanks for the reminder, Godfrey . Being the broken record, I enjoy pointing out that, in the original, the first word is indeed "laugh" γελᾶν not seek wisdom, etc. Laugh is being emphasized as the first word in the text.