What legacy would you like to leave behind? (respects, years, husband)
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No one - but if someone has no desire to leave one, they don't have much to contribute to this thread after saying "none." The posts from people who DO wish to leave a legacy are therefore more interesting to me, because they are more varied in their responses.
Sorry I am such a loser and have nothing to contribute and messed up the thread.
The idea that everyone or most people have a special purpose or multiple purposes or need or want to leave a legacy seems grandiose to me, and sometimes tied to the idea of religion with axioms which some believe which are 'everything happens for a reason' or 'it was meant to be' or 'it was fate and fated to happen' - none of these axioms in which I believe.
I definitely do not believe that 'everything happens for a reason'. Not everyone has any particular purpose nor is leaving a legacy necessary.
Unless you're a person gifted with something to give or sought out special gifts to give the larger world or to your own environment or who luckily or skillfully carved out a niche, then you're an average person - without an ability to leave the earth having given anything particularly special - which is nothing to be ashamed of.
Being average is the norm - and most of us are just like tiny grains of sand among millions who have lived before us and millions who will live after us.
There are some who do great things.
Others will maintain that everyone has special or individual gifts. Not everyone carves out a niche where these gifts are given or discovered.... or maybe they are miniscule.
Some are able to give some special gifts to their own small world or special gifts to the larger world, but just as many are average people, and live just an average life - (average lives can be magical many days of existence.) I just don't think leaving a legacy is necessary and it's a bit grandiose to think that most everyone will be or is interested in leaving a legacy, just like the idea that everyone has a purpose is grandiose.
Agreed. And why do we crave purpose and a legacy to begin?
I really do not understand. You and several others seem to have pride in leaving behind nothing of value or at least stating that. Is this some sort of humor? Or supposed to be cute or witty? Or based on modesty? Or just trolling for a reaction?
If this is really true, is it hard to get up in the morning and face another day without purpose? Or are animal comforts and time consuming activities enough? I guess it is very common, but I really do not understand this approach to life.
Answering for myself ..... I have no pride attached to leaving nothing behind. And it was not meant as a humorous comment, or cute, or witty. Just the honest truth.
No it's not hard to get up in the morning, although it might be for you if you were to think this way. In other words, if you came to the conclusion that you did not want to leave any sort of legacy, then that might be depressing for you. But, it is not that way for EVERYONE.
The fact that you don't understand does not mean that it is an incorrect approach. Although, I may be reading a condescension in your remarks that is not there.
I consider there to be two parts to my legacy, such as it is/will be; one personal and one professional.
The professional one is easy. I'm a retired political and legislative analyst and worked on many bills over a 20-year period. During that time there are two bills I wrote I'm particularly proud of - one state and one federal - both of which passed and greatly enhanced and protected medical benefits for millions of military retirees. I also worked on deep background (it was outside of my "official" policy area) to find an author and work-in necessary and useful amendments for a bill to bring comfort and some closure to families in my former state who had lost infants to still births. My name is nowhere in or on any of those bills but I know who wrote/worked them and I am content.
On the personal front, I have five adult children. Seeing them happy and successful and while cognizant that they deserve most of the credit is the best legacy of which I can conceive. Just maybe I had, through their upbringings, some small part in their successes.
One legacy I seem to have left to my children is a love of gardening, especially growing fruit and vegetables. They were raised in a semi-rural area with a family orchard which included an 80 year old walnut tree, peach, pear and apple trees, and grape arbors. We also grew vegetables every year, which they now do also. They seem to enjoy pouring over the seed catalogues every year looking for new things to grow, just like me.
A lot of people. Usually the same ones that think there is some sort of purpose to life. They are probably anthropocentric as well.
I don't think anthropocentric fits. Each of us is a rational thinking being. We are responsible for ourselves regardless of man's place in the universe.
Answering for myself ..... I have no pride attached to leaving nothing behind. And it was not meant as a humorous comment, or cute, or witty. Just the honest truth.
No it's not hard to get up in the morning, although it might be for you if you were to think this way. In other words, if you came to the conclusion that you did not want to leave any sort of legacy, then that might be depressing for you. But, it is not that way for EVERYONE.
The fact that you don't understand does not mean that it is an incorrect approach. Although, I may be reading a condescension in your remarks that is not there.
For me it is not just a legacy, it is fulfilling a joy of learning and growth and accomplishment. Sorry I try to avoid taking a superior attitude. I understand that the vast majority of people do not have the same outlook on life. Most seem content to get through life without too much pain. That alone can be quite an accomplishment.
Sorry I am such a loser and have nothing to contribute and messed up the thread.
lol, jasper, get in line.
I responded because someone asked me something similar not long ago and I honestly hadn't given the matter any thought up until that time. My thinking is more in the line of "do no harm" or "leave things as nice as they were when you arrived".
I certainly don't think of myself as a worthless person or as having lead a useless life, even if I like to watch the grass grow and read about what other people did in their life on any given day.
I spent my life making a living, resting up, and getting up the next day to do it again.
I don't think anthropocentric fits. Each of us is a rational thinking being. We are responsible for ourselves regardless of man's place in the universe.
You are generous to a fault if you think each of us is rational.
Anthropocentricity, encourages the point of view that humans have some sort of objective purpose and will leave some sort of lasting legacy.
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