How important is legacy to you?

Could you elaborate a little further?

How important is it to you to distinguish yourself after you die?

I used to have an almost pathological need to be remembered after death, now I think I’ve mellowed. There’s something to be said about disappearing into the past and floating off. Just another link in a chain.

I’m pretty convinced I’m gonna make my mark somehow. Considering I want to run archaeological digs. I’m bound to find something some time.

I’m not remarkable to the population at large, but I am really into genealogy, knowing where people came from and how their lives overlaid current events. I’m fascinated by the fact that my people went from other countries to Canada, and in most cases, never went back. When my oldest daughter turned 16, I thought about my grandmother coming to Montreal at 16 from Poland, to live with a brother she didn’t remember, to work in a country whose language she didn’t speak, to send money back home to her parents. Perhaps that’s a collective family legacy, that if it weren’t known, I couldn’t encourage my daughters to go out and seek new places.

I do one thing that no one knows about (until now.) Our house will be 100 years old next year. It’s an Arts and Crafts bungalow with the original wainscotting in the dining room. On one wall, at the top, is a gap between the plaster wall and the wood. Over the last 28 years we’ve lived here, I’ve dropped things down into the space between the wall and wood. If anyone ever takes the wainscotting off, they’ll find pictures of us at various ages, notes about things that have happened, newspaper articles, baseball cards, pictures of pop stars, all sorts of random things.

I’ve always been completely okay with the fact that I will fade into oblivion and obscurity.

It doesn’t bother me. When I die I want to be cremated and dumped somewhere, I definitely don’t want a gravestone.

I think all the “people must remember me after I die” drama is a bit cliche.

It is more important that people have been affected by my life than that they remember me. I am part of my father’s legacy so there are dozens (out of thousands) of people who will carry something of me and therefore my father into their lives and therefore their children and generation.

We all leave a legacy and in a generation or two the name disappears but the ideas and values carry on.

My children and grandchildren are my legacy (that, and a few misdelivered checks). After I’m dead I won’t care how I’m remembered since I won’t be here.

I used to think about this a lot until we adopted our daughter. Now I look at her and think, “whoever she becomes, I had a hand in that.” That’s more than enough for me.

I feel the same as the two above ^^. As I see it, my purpose in life is to raise good human beings, who then go on to raise more good human beings. It’s my small way to affect the world for the better.

My lurve will be my legacy!

Not unless you’re famous, then its forced upon you
ex: kings, presidents etc. Go down with a bang and always be remembered.

Not important to me at all. Legacy only lasts so long. Eventually even Hammurabi will be forgotten.

I’ve written a lot of letters, which I’ve kept. I also have a lot of bank statements and credit card statements from over the years. If someone wanted to use them to reconstruct my life, they could. Maybe my kids will be interested in my life before them some day.

@petethepothead However you affect people will become part of how they affect others like a stone thrown into a pool. Your name may disappear but your legacy will be what (good or bad) you have passed on.