Unremembered, not forgotten

Normally reserved for Royalty, leaders of countries and CEO's; over the last years, legacy has appeared more heavily into the vernacular in regards to the average person.

Legacy is not just what will be left as an inheritance, it is the concept of the person themselves. How will they be remembered and for what they will be remembered. We are planning and curating a reputation to mark our grave.

This seems to be tied to our likely human fascination with immortality as we tend to fancy ourselves worthy of eternity. We seem to have a little bit of a God complex. Perhaps this has been learned from the kings and queens, then the leaders of a country and then the CEO as each layer raises themselves and gets lifted onto a pedestal, positioned for worship and the ego grows. Now, it is our turn, the 'average royal.'

Sign your name

 
In the age of claiming individuality and uniquity, we now fancy ourselves the new royalty and this role requires remembrance and therefore, investment into building a profile to worship, an altar of me.

Who do we want to remember us? Everyone. We want family to remember all that we have done for them, friends to remember all of the good times shared and strangers to remember how we were, at least, how we want them to think we were.

This is done in hundreds of ways, like a child that has newly learned how to write their name, we want to label everything we touch as ours. Mark our territory, stake a claim, take ownership with our self-awarded entitlement. We want all to know, this is who we were, this is how we lived our lives, bear witness, carry the message of me on.

But, who will remember?

 
While driving recently, my wife and I were listening to the Beatles while our daughter slept. She commented how the songs have stood the test of time and when Come Together came on, I mentioned that I think the song was well ahead of its time both lyrically and musically. Then I remembered something that I had heard some time ago.

When the song FourFiveSeconds was released by Rihanna, West and McCartney, some young people commented on social media how great it is that they had given the chance and exposure to the old guy on guitar. Of course, they were mocked mercilessly for their ignorance but for many of the younger generations, how would they know who he is?

It doesn't matter whether they can name the man, know one of his songs or have heard of the Beatles at all, they have all been affected by his legacy. This is because what he created inspired others to create. His words and music added ripples in time.

Unremembered, but not forgotten

 
Legacy to me is not what you will be remembered for leaving behind, it is what will live on through others, and this will influence in massively random and unknown ways. Legacy is inspiring those connected with in a way that sets off a chain reaction of events that will grow and reduce organically but, have the ability to never stop affecting the world until no one carries any instance or trace of the movement.

Inspiration can take many shapes, and manifest in another person in many forms and they can be as much negative as positive. Intention and action are rarely unified but influence will always tie itself to the action. The intention just allows us to justify and comfort ourselves when we missed the target, when we failed to achieve what we set out to do.

Our actions will live forever in the millions of micro movements we set in motion, just as all of the history and experience of the world has been carried through to influence us, genetically, culturally, emotionally.

We will be remembered, but in time, no one will recall our names.

Taraz
[ a Steem original ]