What Do You Want Your Legacy To Be?

Life is a journey, then we die.
What we leave behind of our time here is our life legacy.
What do you want to be remembered for?
(what do you think you'll really be remembered for?)

Legacies are important for many folks. Legacies when leaving a job or social group for example. When people leave their job or their social group, they want to have a certain impression of themselves left behind. Or they want to have certain work accomplished so they feel like they contributed and that is their legacy.

Do you ever think about what your legacy will be, or is a legacy irrelevant to you and you are just going about living life? Does having a good legacy even matter? After all, most people are forgotten about within 2 generations after their death. Do you feel the need to leave something substantial accomplished behind when you leave this life or your place of employment? A monument to your hard work? Art work you have done or a special collection to pass along? A legacy of a big bank account for descendants for them to remember you by? What do you think people will say about you at your funeral or in your obituary? When you leave your place of employment or when you leave your social groups .. like ATS .. what do you think people will say about you? What will your legacy be? Do you care?

What do you want to be known for? Remembered for?

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To answer my own question for myself .... I don't think I'll have any kind of legacy at all and, despite that a lot of people think a person should care, it doesn't matter to me. In fact, I kind of like the anonymity and find the lack of having to work for a legacy to be 'freeing' in many ways.

I no longer can work outside the home and no longer can volunteer like I used to. (health reasons). Six years ago, I stopped working with the preschoolers and I stopped volunteering at the church and in the schools. Within weeks I was replaced and all the people I worked/volunteered with faded away from my life within a few months. I was replaced and forgotten. People come and people go. No legacy there.

The only person I have real face to face contact with on a daily basis is my husband. And my daughter when she's home for vacation from College. I wave to neighbors and smile at the grocery store cashier, but that's it. I don't do social get togethers with people who were friends because, when you get chronically ill, you find that people fade from your life because you can no longer do the same social things that they can. When I die, the only people who will be impacted are my husband and, to some extent, my adult daughter. Otherwise, I won't be missed. No legacy there.

Many folks see their kids as their legacy. But my daughter is her own person and not my legacy. I wouldn't want to have the burden of making her carry a legacy for me through her. That's not fair. She is adopted and wants no children. So it's not like there will be grandchildren or greatgrandchildren looking at old family photos and checking out their ancestry (I'm not a blood ancestor so they probably wouldn't care much anyways). No legacy there.

ATS? When I go (either through death or leaving) I'll soon be forgotten and replaced. There are a number of people here who I think could be good moderators and any one of them could easily fill my vacant spot. People come and go. No legacy there.

St. Terese of Lisieux , who died young at age 24, said that doing big things to be remembered by isn't important. It's the small things that go forgotten about or unnoticed that are important - doing with love the small things that come your way. They won't get noticed and aren't splashy ... no legacy ... but they are what is important. The irony here is ... St. Terese of Lisieux now has a legacy, that being her 'The Little Way' teachings about not having to do big things and make big impacts. She's probably the most popular saint in the world right now. (not counting Mary or Joseph).

So anyways, no legacy for me. I'm not working towards one. I'm not even thinking about it. And I don't think I'll be remembered outside of my husband and daughter so I'll be anonymous soon after death anyways. The reason I am asking ATSers if they want to share what they think they'll be remembered for is because the TV news is talking about political legacies and that got me thinking about personal legacies.

I want my family to remember me as a good Father and a good Husband. I want them to remember how much I loved them and that I did everything in my power to support them, when ever they needed me. I don't care if anyone else remembers me and I don't want a big fuss when I do die. Just cremate me, send a small bit in a capsule to space and scatter the rest in a nice place. I'll be back to visit when I can, I got a whole Universe to explore!!

I'm in your camp. I don't care about leaving a legacy per se. There was a line in "Gladiator" that went:
"What we do in life echoes in eternity." I love that statement, because it's saying that you
don't have to be legendary. (or even slightly famous!) It's very simple, yet profound.

As far as legacies go, I think the coolest would be a musical legacy. As I type this, there's some junior-high kid practicing guitar because he heard Eric Clapton, and something moved him.
There's a young girl practicing violin 5 hours a night because Vivaldi inspired her.
Now that's a legacy!

originally posted by: DAVID64
Just cremate me, send a small bit in a capsule to space and scatter the rest in a nice place.

Last week I stumbled upon a biodegradable funeral urn to put ashes in. And it was made in such a way that you can plant a tree in the urn and then put the urn in the ground. You can have your ashes feed the new baby tree. I thought that was fantastic. I plan to be cremated so I'm going to show my husband that urn and ask him to keep it in mind. That would be an interesting 'legacy' .. feed a baby tree with the ashes.

a reply to: FlyersFan

That's cool! Ok, got a new "Death Plan"

I would hope mine and my husband's legacy would be in the form of family love, loyalty and support for each other that would be a natural way of living to be handed down through the generations - that family and friends are not throwaway.

Also, we have many art pieces and antiques that I would hope some pieces trickle down to those that can appreciate history, craftsmanship, beauty and art.

My children are the legacy I leave behind.

it is the legacy that flows on, generation after generation and down through the ages.

That is the only real legacy we have when it is all said and done.

Oh, and my books I suppose although I get the warm fuzzies when people read them.

I probably won't care much after I have left this world though.

P

a reply to: FlyersFan

It will be enough for me if just one person remembers me positively.

Other than that, I wish to leave as little of a mark as possible. Too much is made in the history of our species, of those who were intent on imposing themselves on the future of their people, of their species. Some of the greatest human beings who ever lived, died without fame, left the mortal coil without leaving more than a grave marker and some good vibes behind them, so to speak.

If I had found myself in a position to make an exclusively positive impression on this world, either by being more affluent than I am, or finding myself in a higher status position than the one I occupy, I might be tempted to wax lyrical about how I would like to be remembered as a reasonable person, who promoted intellectual pursuits amongst his people, who enabled others to improve themselves by acquisition of knowledge and wisdom.

As it is however, all I want is for those who are left after me to occasionally hoist a beer in my name, and remember me fondly

a reply to: FlyersFan

My legacy is simple, he never gave in, and he never gave up..till the day I die

originally posted by: pheonix358
I probably won't care much after I have left this world though.

Probably true. If we move on in the next world, then monuments to ourselves in this world wont' matter. And nearly every person who has lived on this planet has been forgotten.

originally posted by: TrueBrit
I wish to leave as little of a mark as possible. Too much is made in the history of our species, of those who were intent on imposing themselves on the future of their people, of their species. Some of the greatest human beings who ever lived, died without fame, left the mortal coil without leaving more than a grave marker and some good vibes behind them, so to speak.

Perfectly said. I'm right there with you. The quest for 'legacy' has done a whole lot of damage to humanity and to the world. Very true.

a reply to: FlyersFan

Nice post FF.


I want to be remembered as a nice guy as well as someone you don't screw with,a humanitarian,a friend to men and a lover to women and a friend to all.
Tough question to ask without putting some thought behind the answer.

a reply to: FlyersFan

I want those who truly knew me (not people that are my "friends" on the internet) to remember me as a caring, intelligent, extremely honest individual (sometimes to others' advantages). I don't sugar-coat things, but I don't speak out of willful ignorance, either. I do nearly anything I can to help others, disregarding my own needs much of the time.

As for superficial things, like how much I can bench press, or that I can draw portraits well, or that I could build nice things out of wood--none of that matters. It's who I am, not what I can do, that I want to be my legacy.

"Here lies an insufferable hard ass"

originally posted by: SlapMonkey
I want those who truly knew me (not people that are my "friends" on the internet) ...

Honestly, people I know on the internet are just internet acquaintances, no matter how much I 'talk' to them online. When it comes down to it, we really dont' know who is on the other side of this screen. Not really.

a reply to: FlyersFan

that is why i don't really try to make friends. I like all of you guys....but friends are a time consuming complication in life. So i keep my circle VERY small.

IRL, i have 1 friend. He lives 5 hours away from me, and we meet up maybe once, twice a year. Other than that...i married my friend. Then she gave birth to 2 more friends.

a reply to: bigfatfurrytexan
Pretty much ditto that for me.

I've learned the hard way .. nowadays the only person I trust and am really friends with is my husband. Internet 'friends' come and go. Neighbors and people I know IRL come and go and are 'fair weather'. So who would I be building a legacy for ??? Just my husband and he already knows me and I don't need to impress him with any kind of legacy. So no need of a 'legacy' ...

a reply to: FlyersFan

I feel extremely fortunate.
I have 6 best friends in real life and a bunch of others that are contenders.
2 I say I love you to,the others just know it by my actions.
Both are male and we are not gay....sometimes you just know who loves you.

Do you ever think about what your legacy will be, or is a legacy irrelevant to you and you are just going about living life? Does having a good legacy even matter? After all, most people are forgotten about within 2 generations after their death

Sadly, unless you've done something that leaves a real, lasting mark...this much is true.
My wife and I's "legacy" will be leaving the house to the kids (who will likely sell it and split the money, vs. either of them living in it...)

The need/desire to leave a legacy, or merely be remembered, is the most pathetic trait we could possibly have. & as a species wholly made up of pathetic traits, that's saying a lot.