I wanted to write on this topic for a while now but I didn't really know how to start. And since I still haven't figured it out, to start it off I am just going to ask you the question from the title. What are you leaving behind? I am going to have a hard time translating this out of my mind and onto this piece of digital paper because it is not something I've ever talked about or even heard someone talk about. But I think it is an important question that I want to discuss with you. Primarily so I can get a view from another perspective and maybe improve my writing skill in the process. So when I ask you: What are you leaving behind or to your legacy? I'm not talking about money, not talking about houses or cars or jewellery. I'm talking about your family name. Is your family name or to be more precise, your lineage going to benefit from your actions and deeds.
Let me clarify this more, let's imagine for a moment you are working at a front desk in some popular gym in your town, and a young man comes to you and applies for monthly membership, you ask for his name and he says, John Gates. You don't know him, you never saw him, he doesn't seem familiar, but since Bill Gates is an icon in the world, it would probably cause some kind of reaction in you. And that reaction in most cases would be positive. Now, imagine your next customer walks in, again young man, different face this time, but pretty much similar to the first one. He applies for monthly membership and he says his name is Mark Jhonson. You wouldn't even react to this one, actually, you might even still be thinking about the first one "Hmm I wonder if John Gates is related to Bill Gates"
Will our last names be associated with respect after our deaths?
https://www.pexels.com/photo/writing-notes-idea-class-7103/
We tend to get lost in this modern life, go to school, study, find a job, get a promotion, get married, have children. And I'm not saying those aren't important however, we are forgetting something or someone equally or more important. Do you ever think about all of those people that will come to life after you, because of you? And I know there is this thought in our heads that makes us go: "I have MY life to live, why should I care about someone that will come to life ages and ages after." And you might say that is a valid argument but in reality, that kind of behaviour is harmful to society and might lead us to the great number of social crisis in the future as the result.
I think we should be fully aware of our ancestors, and what they did and try to learn from their actions. We should be the continuation of what the ones before us did. And in case they only brought harm to our name, we should strive to make our it clean again.
There is this quote from HBO series that helped spark this idea in my head when Archmaester said to Samwell Tarly: "In the Citadel, we lead different lives for different reasons. We are this world's memory, Samwell Tarly. Without us, men would be little better than dogs. Don't remember any meal but the last, can't see forward to any but the next." (season 7, episode 1, βDragonstoneβ )
Forgetting something that happened and ignoring something that will happen in the future is making us less than humans. Do you know where you came from? Do you know where you are going? or is your next meal only priority in your life?
We might as well accept our passport numbers as our last names since apparently, it became more a tool for identification than anything else. And wouldn't that be a better way of identifying people as individuals since that is all we strive to be?
I am trying to point out the value we hold in our last names, I'm trying to point out how great is the responsibility we hold and how much the things we do can be of value to the ones that are yet to be born. There is a reason we have last names and it is not only for identification.
We have a gift of great value, we should not take it for granted.
"You will wander for a long time in the world of white, with a knightly fervour, but one day with a cheerless pace, you will return to your old home, you will remember everything and weep. Like a ship without a banner, you will wander forever alone." (Branko ΔopiΔ 1915-1984 Bosnian-Herzegovinian writer).
-world of white is a term in the Bosnian language that means a place away from the place you lived/was born in-
I hope this was at least slightly amusing or useful for you to read, I would also like to read and or discuss with you further this topic. Please don't shy away from commenting and if you could resteeem that would help me a lot. Thanks for reading and have a nice day/evening.