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Yep. In 150 years, nobody will know anything about you or care that you existed. You will simply be a line on a genealogy tree.
Or, to put it another way, an immortal bit of data in Ancestry.com's portion of the cloud. As worthy as any other forebear. Fodder for any historically-oriented content provider.
So stand up straight. Put a smile on your face. Go forth into tomorrow secure in the knowledge that today is nothing more or less than yesterday's tomorrow.
Most people lead lives of abject insignificance, but few have the moral courage to accept this. Many made contributions on balance execrable and malign, but this is even harder to admit. On balance, the best life was lived by the aborted fetus...........
While I agree with your first sentence, I do not accept the nihilism of the bolded one. On balance, the best lives were lived by the statistical exceptions who created transcendent beauty or expanded our horizons of comprehension, or used their lives to ease the sufferings of others.
What Johann Sebastian Bach (just to give one example among hundreds) gave to humanity is nothing short of a miracle. People like Galileo and Sir Isaac Newton and their successors allowed our species to rise from our dumb incomprehension of the world around us to its exploration and its ordering, and that is certainly a real glory of our species even if it was brought about by a small minority.
On a more prosaic level, I believe all the researchers who gave rise to modern dentistry led meaningful lives because they eased our collective physical suffering.
Incidentally, it is an incredibly refreshing breath of fresh air to note the intellectual content of your post in this context, even if I do not agree with it, and even if I quoted only the portion I wished to respond to directly. It sure beats the banality and mindlessness which seem to predominate in some areas of the Retirement Forum, although I am not referring to this present thread particularly.
I can't say I've accomplished much in my life. What I have done is experience things. I think I was born loving certain hobbies and through every bad thing in my life and despite everyone who told me I was childish and I should grow up, I dug my heels in and continued to enjoy the hobbies I had as a child and I even added more to my list. And I've also discovered some wonderful people who enjoy the same hobbies I do.
One of the things I've done is learn. I learn so much more every year and every year I do things I've never done before. I don't just dabble in the things I'm interested in. I dive in and turn these things upside down and inside out, and I explore them to the limit of what I can do with them. Then I look for more things to get interested in and learn about. I try to hold on to my common sense, but I am still open to hearing about new ideas and new things. On top of that, life isn't easy and I'm always being challenged to find ways to survive and even thrive. The challenge in living is definitely there.
I just watched "Through the Wormhole' the other night and I saw speculation that it's the future that dictates our past. I'm wondering for what purpose? What is in my future that has required me to go through all the twists and turns of my life so far?
I'm not certain I like the term "God fearing", as it makes me wonder what a parent did to instill "fear" in their child in the name of God? I don't know that God wishes to be feared, he would appreciate being loved in return for his love, as any human would, and he would appreciate a heart felt "Thank you" when he does something nice for you. As humans are created in his image, our feelings of wanting to be appreciated are not so different than his.
"Be fruitful and multiply" is a concept from another era, and no longer needed as there is no shortage of people and big families are no longer needed as most of us no longer live on farms and need our children to be helping us on them.
Much of the Bible is parables, to teach a way of thinking, of helping others and seeing Jesus in others, and walking in his path of kindness. It's by that way of thinking we hold society together an move forward.
When I want to consider what I have accomplished, I consider the movie "It's a Wonderful Life". I consider what I have done to help someone else's life be better, and what may have happened if I had not helped and no else did either... and then I see I have made some difference I can be proud of, even if it didn't make me a financial success, which is glorified in our society, and even if no one noticed or gave me accolades for it.
At the end of the day, you an God know your accomplishments.
Look at it like someone let you use a vacation condo:
Have a good time, try not to annoy the neighbors and don't trash the place. It would be nice if you offer assistance if a neighbor needs help while you are there.
I don't think there will be anyone at the end of my life making a list of pluses and minuses, no golden gate or reincarnation; I will just stop being. My Dad likes to say you are remembered for three generations and then you are truly gone.
Three generations? Once they clean up after the party I'd give it 5 years.
Three generations? Once they clean up after the party I'd give it 5 years.
As a kid I heard stories about great Aunt Maude and the great grandparents. I have not retold their stories. So they'll go with me, never to be spoken of again. Someone may go through pictures my Mom has at some point and wonder who those people are but they won't know. Many of the pics have no dates or names written on the back.
And yes, some people may have earned a few years only of being remembered.
I feel that I have lived a good and successful life. I worked at a job I enjoyed (most of the time) which allowed me to move up through the ranks and finally retire with a very comfortable pension. My husband did the same, so we are able to enjoy our retirement. But that's just money....
My biggest accomplishment is my 3 wonderful daughters. They all went through the usual teenage and young-adult angst but now in their 30's all of them are smart, confident, and employed in leadership roles in their professions. We raised them to be self-sufficient and able to take care of them selves in the world without leaning on someone else, and they have achieved that. Two are happily married to my wonderful sons-in-law, but if those marriages don't last, I know that my daughters are still able to stand on their own feet and carry on, both financially and emotionally.
I feel like my own career was just a means to an end, paying for the material things we needed in our daily lives. The guidance, teaching and support I gave my daughters are the thing I am most proud of, and I see the results of all that every day.
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