Legacy
LEGACY IS A KIND OF RIDDLE IN TIME
Its simplest and most inclusive definition seems to be ‘something that is passed on.’ This definition is also the most neutral and does not touch on money, monuments to self, achievements and the like. It may also be the least cited definition especially in our time of expectations, that is of fame and fortune, our constant background noise of aspiration.
LEGACY – HOW (I) refers to the kinds of personal aspirations including fame and money, but also of honesty, character, goodwill, and their opposites dishonesty, lowlife, deceit, and the rest of a tragic existence.
LEGACY – WHEN (you) refers to the history that must occur before the evidence of anyone’s legacy can be recorded. This requires another, the witness and perhaps eventually the chronicler as well.
LEGACY – WHERE (us) refers to one of the endpoints of legacy, the consensus of a record and belief in what has taken place in time that is now memorialized for better or worse. Where a legacy is archived and how it is recalled is actually all that remains of it on Earth.