Your Legacy

[EdithKeeler]

My first post was written a little bit flippantly. For the record I don't sit and brood about how history will remember me. I do, however, think (some) about the fact that a lot of what I do in life is relatively meaningless in the grand scheme of things. That's why I thought the idea of leaving your legacy within a corporation is a little bit hilarious.

I do wonder sometimes how my little tiny spark of life fits in with the larger whole. I'm a big believer in the "radiating waves" idea, that our actions may be but a small drop in the larger scheme, but our actions often affect others in ways that we often don't know about. We've all had that experience with a random stranger that we've thought about long after they've forgotten us, because their small action left a mark on us for one reason or another (sometimes negatively).

It seems that life is both big and small. Each one of our lives is so small on a historic scale and our contributions minimal. Yet they are huge--to us and often to those around us. I'm not a particularly religious person, but it does seem that our lives have some meaning--or should have some meaning--beyond the papers we push at work, the chores we do every day, etc. Some people find it in God, some in other places.

I get focused sometimes on amassing my nut so I can drop out of the work force, but I guess my musings on legacy were reminding myself of that possible larger picture and that it's not all about the money. (I'm like Waldo--where am I in that huge and busy picture??)

[jacob]

If anything, we can take a lesson from the humanities (where everything is "arbitrary") and say that "meaning" is some chosen narrative we attribute to our perspective

What we prefer to chose probably depends a lot on neurochemistry.

[george]

Thats interesting Toska. Went for a bike ride yesterday. in amongst the broken roads, the empty sections, the houses still to be demolished theres a house. Lots of people leave messages on them thanking the house for whatever reason. This one just says. All we have is memories.

[Dragline]

Thats interesting Toska. Went for a bike ride yesterday. in amongst the broken roads, the empty sections, the houses still to be demolished theres a house. Lots of people leave messages on them thanking the house for whatever reason. This one just says. All we have is memories.

I think this is a very important idea that many never quite grasp. Many people keep lots of things because they associate them with memories. Yet the hoarding of the things almost diminishes the memories because the thing takes the place of the memory.

Now maybe I should sing "The Way We Were": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-KPGh3wysw

[vern]

"[He] is not famous. It may be that he never will be. It may be that when his life at last comes to an end he will leave no more trace of his sojourn on earth than a stone thrown into a river leaves on the surface of the water."

W. Somerset Maugham

[jacob]

I met a traveler from an antique land
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert....Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away."

--- Shelley

[Felix]

From my perspective a legacy is some way of making the world a bit more livable and enjoyable for others - if they know my name is of no importance in this. It would be nice to believe that I play my part in a greater development towards that goal. Maybe to some degree we all do already. I'm not even sure I have much of an influence in this matter.