The legacy people should leave behind is one in which they were the best they could be, helped when and where they could, led by example, and positively contributed to society. No one person can change the world, but through cooperation and collaboration a progressive and positive change can be made. Each person has a specific interest, niche, or calling that they can and should follow to the best of their ability to help improve that field in our world.
A legacy that all people should have is that they lived happily and helped others. A person's legacy depends on their morals, however, and every persons legacy will be different. I am also a strong believer int he fact that people should not live to build a legacy, but to build themselves and their life. A good life will lead to a good legacy.
We leave behind our memories we create in our actions and with other people. Our legacy is how we are remembered by those who choose to remember us. Those memories we create may or may not actually define our legacy. The people we impact ultimately determine our legacies. Once we are gone, we can't control how we will be remembered. All we can do is live lives that promotes a positive legacy.
I found it interesting that when I looked up the definition for legacy I got these two responses: an amount of money or property left to someone in a will, and a thing handed down by a predecessor. The first definition surprised me more than the second one because it deals with money a very specific item left specifically in a will. I found it interesting though that the second definition still deals with a tangible object "thing". I don't necessarily believe that a legacy needs to be an object though, I see it more as an intangible thought that explains who you were, what you did, and how you did it, and is left for others to interpret and review. The legacy we leave is determined by our character, how we have lived our life and they can either be good or bad. Usually legacy is used after someone has passed, but now that I am thinking about it, it can be used to describe anything someone has stopped doing. For instance Michael Jordan, he left his legacy through his basketball career, and he is still alive. While Michael Jordan is famous and was known by many, I think everyone popular or not, leaves a legacy. The legacy might not effect as many people but it is always there for future generations to see and experience.
To create a lasting legacy, one must be a role model. This could be anything from being an excellent parent to being a hall of fame athlete. Either way you have to do something that other people admire and want to emulate for years to come.
In my opinion I believe that the legacy we as individuals should strive to leave is one that affects others in a positive way and, hopefully, leaves people with positive memories of your actions. Whether it’s one big act of courage or many small acts of kindness, we should put our best foot forward whenever possible in whatever situation we choose to get involved in. For an athlete this may look like inspiring children to get involved in sports while for another person it could be volunteering at the homeless shelter and helping people get back on their feet.
Obviously in life we want to leave a legacy that is positive and one that inspires others to act in the way you had during your life. I think that all humans should strive to be the best that they can be and acknowledge when failure occurs. I think that the best people in history are those who have taken their successes humbly and have tried their best to act morally but also acknowledge when they are wrong and move on from the past. I think that acknowledging the fact that we are humans and make mistakes is a crucial part in one's legacy, because many historical figures are made out to be perfect, godly creatures. However, when looking to those types of figures, the mistakes that we make in our daily lives makes it difficult to connect to those who seemingly have not made any mistakes. A legacy should be something that people look towards when they need help and a lot of people need somewhere to look when they are struggling in life or have made a huge mistake. This is super important to consider when considering what you want your legacy to be. For me, I hope that I leave behind the idea that making your wrongs right is the best way to live life, especially because it ensures that you are living a life free of grudges and regrets.
Ideally, we want to leave a positive legacy. We want to be the people who "changed the world for the better". We want to create the biggest shoes to fill; challenge the younger generations to go above and beyond what we've achieved, yet never forget that we were there first. However, from where I stand, we are heading toward leaving a legacy as the destructors of the world as we know it. Rather than leaving this realm as something to be remembered for, we'll be leaving as the generation of ruin, unless we make a radical U-turn. I feel like a hypocrite for saying this, because I don't have the answers to how to make such a rapid turn-around. What makes me worried though, is the inability of our generation to see past the immediate event or assignment. The advancement of the technological world has somewhat "sucked" the attention to a concentrated point, the self and the individual. This is contrary to the opportunities we have because of the modern world, specifically the expanded availability of information and travel options. Yet, the development of self-facing cameras, social media, and the growth of individuality has aggravated the disdainful quality of vanity. Maybe, the key to creating a legacy for our generation is to reform the way we view or selves in relation to the holistic view of the world.
I agree with what many other people have said. It is important to leave a legacy in which one has a positive impact on society. Of course we want to be remembered as a selfless positive role model. However, I believe that part of our legacy should be for ourselves. I think it is important to be able to look back on our lives and be happy with who we were and what we accomplished.
The thing about each generation is that they always have a good and bad legacy. There is always the part of a generation where in reflection the later generations realize the decisions they made or there paradigms were bad. It seems that human rights and environmentalism are the two subjects that we should try to strive for by reflecting on our past generations. If we could try to help the environment and people, we could possibly be known as the caring generation. Ultimately we need to try to leave the most positive legacy we can.
What we leave behind as a legacy is not as much dependent on our actions for the greater good (or bad) during our lifetime, but how others interpret them. Someone could do things the things they perceive as positive for the greater good, like Hitler's efforts to preserve the master race by exterminating the Jewish population, but most of the world perceived that as horrific. Thus, Hitler's legacy was mostly negative except to a small few who still revere him as a hero. We can do everything in our power to leave a legacy that we believe is good, but the legacy that is left is truly how it is perceived by our family, friends, and later generations.
Our legacy should be a generation that actually fixes something that needs fixing. This is kind of a generalization but I feel like a lot of the power in the world right now is investing in issues that are not the most pressing or have to do with personal gain but not much benefit on a global scale. With the incredible brains and technology in the world today, why is it so hard or why are we too lazy to start fixing what determines our futures right now? If we continue to self invest, although we may be "popular" in our time, we will by no means leave a legacy. I feel like that is why no one wants to leave a legacy, because it does not have instant gratification or gratification at all in our lifetime. If each generation leaves a positive legacy for the next generation, each generation will come with something already fulfilled while working to help the next generation like they were helped by the last.
For me, the concept of legacy has less to do with the "mark you left on the world", and more to do with the mark the world left on you. Although some people are able to make great scientific, medicinal, humanitarian... etc. breakthroughs in their lifetimes, and such an achievement could definitely be considered their "legacy", most of us won't. Most of us won't be famous, or extremely powerful, or the leading researcher in whatever branch of the sciences we happen to be involved in. So speaking with this knowledge in mind, most of the "legacies" that people are able to leave are on a much smaller scale, and much more personal. And I truly think that the best way to set out about leaving any sort of legacy is to engage fully in life. To seek out things that intrigue and captivate you, and to seek out and form relationships with other human beings who live the same way. This is the best way to leave a "mark": to allow yourself to be marked by the life you live. The type of energy that this personal engagement in life creates is incredibly powerful- it's where more often than not major breakthroughs in medicine and science, and people who become famous for mastering or altering their craft, and people who are able to change the lives of others around them simply by existing fully, come from. This is how each person can leave a legacy. If every single person on the planet actively pursued the things that interested them and made them happy, we would have more innovation, and cultural evolution, and a bigger network of friendships and relationships than perhaps we'd know what to do with.
I believe the concept of legacy to be extremely important. I feel that people leaving their mark on the world so to speak is extremely fascinating. However, I'm not going to pretend for a moment that everyone can get the noble prize, or cure a disease, or be an Olympiad. Sometimes one has to set their sights a little lower in order to fully appreciate the legacy they are leaving. It isn't that people who don't do all those things are less important or less appreciable, merely less accessible. People can still be the pinnacle of the community, that volunteer that shows up when few others do, or that person who puts others before themselves every time. However, one does not need to be selfless in order to leave behind a positive legacy. For example, those who do their jobs well do get acknowledged with time for the amount of effort they put in. Heck, even people who don't make great contributions to the broader society at large. People who do things such as play mmorpg's get remembered for being exemplary, guide makers, record breakers, and just general personalities. No matter what you do, you can't help but leave a legacy at the least with those you know, but often with some of those who you don't know as well. Everybody has their place in the world, as the famous lines go "there's a time and place for everything," which I believe to extend to everyone as well. I believe that one is capable of achieving greatness if they look beyond the achievements of the most well known and notice their successes for what they are.
Leaving a legacy behind can be relative to individual people, or communities as a whole. The Romans left a legacy behind, and it can be interpreted as a group of people who conquered vast amounts of land and were powerful, or as people who were brutal rulers and subjected those under their power to harsh living standards. People like Copernicus also leave behind a legacy though, and the significance of it often relates to the nature of their accomplishment. Legacies seem to be important if people notice them, whether for their positive effect or negative impact. Generally, you would think most people want to have a good legacy, in which they are remembered for their respected qualities and contributions to making the world better. Yet there is a lot of emphasis now on becoming famous or rich, and not necessarily leaving a favorable legacy, but making enough noise that you get noticed. Everyone leaves a legacy in their loved ones and friends, but how does one achieve infamy for their good deeds, a remembrance that extends beyond their social circle? We should strive to achieve a legacy that is specific to us, whether it defines one person or a whole country. Our legacy should be a reflection of the changes we wanted to make to our society or life, an example of how we perceived the world, so that generations ahead of us can learn from it. But how can we fulfill such a legacy that truly symbolizes our character or purpose? I suppose someone could devote their entire life to the effort, every significant action they take in pursuit of that legacy, in making a difference where they think it matters, and in guaranteeing it is a positive one in any terms.
A legacy should be one left to others, but through yourself. I strongly believe our legacy should be to leave this planet better than how it was. In all sorts of contexts, like the environment, or education, or peace. However, I believe personal legacies are extremely important as well. It is difficult to leave a positive legacy for the outside world when you yourself are not, to say it simply, good. In order to leave more than just a positive impact on one individual by being a role model you have to be more. By doing this, I think our legacy should be one that future generations can learn upon and then leave this world better than it was before.
I believe our legacy should be to keep bettering the earth so that by the time death has arrived I am able to say I am proud of what I will see in this world before I die. I hope to leave this world knowing it has a legacy for preserving the environment, having all people in the world be able to be educated without the stress of debt and destruction. That is what I hope to leave the world knowing, knowing that we have grown into a place that is respected and looked up upon. I also hope that my personal legacy is something to be proud of. I want my peers and I to grow old knowing that other generations look at us as a generation that was hard working, generous, caring and motivated. It is hard to become someone who has a positive legacy but if you stay motivated and go just that extra mile you will leave a mark, and if we all do that we could become the generation that makes a change and leaves a positive legacy for others to follow.
I believe that the legacy one should leave is different for every person. It depends on the individuals job, money, ethics, family, opportunities and morals. Although each legacy is different each one should leave what ever they may be effecting better and more prosperous then what they started with. By leaving everything better then what you started with you set up the next generation for success and leave the positive mark on everything you do. Giving you an individualized positive legacy for many to remember.
I generally agree with the previous posts in that we want the legacy of our generation to represent that we created more positive outcomes than negative ones for the future generations, and by doing so made the world a better place for them. There is always this talk of the next generation inheriting the Earth in a certain state. I believe that the best legacy would be for us to let these children inherit an Earth that was better than the Earth that we inherited. In the first video the person mentions the huge problems facing our generation. I do not believe it is our duty to completely mitigate these problems and solve them for the subsequent generation. That is simply unrealistic. Rather, I feel that we should attempt to lessen these problems, putting as much of a dent I n these problems as possible, setting up the next generation to finish off the problems. In a way, I believe that every generation should feed off of others and they improve upon the successes and mistakes of previous generations and so on. In this way each generation will not feel the pressure of fixing every single problem, but merely be a cog in a continuous cycle of life that is attempting to make the world a better place and move society toward success bit by bit.
When people look at previous generations, there are always two things that people notice; the good side and bad side of that generation. It is inevitable that our generation will leave negative things; it is just a trend that will probably never be broken. The key is that our generation attempts to learn from the mistakes within our generation and try as hard as possible to fix the negative impacts, instead of just leaving those problems that we have created for the next generation to fix.
In President Obama's recent state of the union address he said " America has been through big changes before -- wars and depression, the influx of new immigrants, workers fighting for a fair deal, movements to expand civil rights. Each time, there have been those who told us to fear the future; who claimed we could slam the brakes on change; who promised to restore past glory if we just got some group or idea that was threatening America under control. And each time, we overcame those fears. We did not, in the words of Lincoln, adhere to the “dogmas of the quiet past.” Instead we thought anew, and acted anew. We made change work for us, always extending America’s promise outward, to the next frontier, to more people. And because we did -- because we saw opportunity where others saw only peril -- we emerged stronger and better than before." His words perfectly capture how I feel about legacy. I think we owe it to future generations to be the best we can be, and not to fear change. We must embrace the world we see before us but realize that there is always something we can do to better it. This is the essence of progress in my mind, and I believe progress is the best legacy we can hope to leave behind. No problems are solved through ignorance and inaction.
Most often we believe to leave behind a legacy is to have made a difference and to make a difference we need to be some sort of master mind with a lot of money. But I don’t think that is the case at all. Doing small kind acts could be enough to leave behind a memory in minds of others which then would end up being our legacy. Although it would seem minute when compared to people we read in our history books, it should not stop the want or the pursuit to bring happiness and good into the lives of others.
As a follow up to my previous post, we should not be blinded by the want or the need to leave behind a legacy. Life has more to offer and we can easily lose focus of that. We can easily lose focus of the bigger picture of life through the natural human frailty of greed. Greed for wealth, power, fame and more can subconsciously make us lose what is important.
The word legacy has come to mean what you leave behind to the world, but that definition forgets one important reality: the world will never know. Except for a few, the entire world will not know of your passing, nor the legacy you leave behind. Even those who are well-known for one reason or another are often forgotten while they are still alive, only being celebrated upon death. If we acknowledge that, the fact that really only a few people will truly know of your legacy, the pressure to have a perfect one is diminished. Although this pressure is natural as we age, it is an unnecessary fear and stressor. The important thing is to do as best as you can in everything you can, and to treat others with as much kindness as you can, and with those things, people will see your legacy. First is the fulfillment of family. Family is the closest group of people to you throughout your life. Although there may be ups and downs and falling outs, family will, in the end, be the closest group of people to you, in most cases. Family will mourn you, family will make the arrangements at the time of your passing and family will truly contemplate your legacy. To “fulfill” family is to attempt to be understanding and kind towards these people, to do well by them when you shouldn’t necessarily have to. In the pursuit of creating an impressive legacy, many may prioritize their careers over their family, but this is only perpetuating the misnomers of legacy. Impress those close to your first, then make new connections and do well by them as well, then focus your remaining energy on the rest of the world. The reality is somewhat disheartening but simple: (Except in few cases) You cannot (on your own) really change the world. For that reason, you must lower the expectations that are naturally set for what someone should accomplish in their lives, because it only leads to an ending of self-disappointment. The only person’s perception of legacy which matters more than family is your own, so don’t tarnish it with overstress and regret.
I think the most important thing our generation has to think about is how we want future generations to view us. Personally, I don't want to be regarded as the generation who destroyed the planet, but would rather be known as the generation who fixed it. Sustainable energy is a pressing matter in this day and age, yet, regardless of the evidence, people find it hard to take solid action against climate change and related consequences. There seem to be other problems that are seen as more important, putting the health of our planet on the back burner. Action against climate change will only happen if the public agrees that it is an important issue. We need to stop allowing ourselves to be interrupted by the "politics" of politics and start looking for renewable sources of energy as a global community.
While there are many pertinent issues worldwide, climate change needs to be prioritized in order to insure some sort of immediate action. All other issues won't matter in 200 or 300 years when CO2 levels are through the roof and millions of square miles of land have been submerged. Though climate change seems like a less immediate issue when compared to international threats to security, or disputes over jobs and the economy, it will be the only issue of any importance when people realize that it can do serious damage to billions of lives. So to answer the question above, I suggest that the fight against climate change and the search for renewable sources of energy should be the legacy of our generation.
Our legacy should always be focused on the future. The idea of selfish sustainability is really a very powerful one. It relies on a more basic human motivator of helping oneself as a means to distribute that help amongst others as well. The irony of the situation is the very technologies and advancements that are causing us to pollute the earth are the ones we can take advantage of to exploit nature and better our own lives. Ultimately, humans are selfish beings. Sooner or later, the existential threat climate change poses will be realized and capitalism will have to find a profit in solving the crisis (as it already has) or else there may never be one found.
Ultimately, legacy is all we have. A common maxim is that everyone dies two deaths. When their heart stops beating, and when their name is spoken for the very last time. Without investing in our legacy, someone really leaves no mark on the earth. It is up to their legacy, and how well they stoked the hearth of it during their lifetime, to determine how their name will be remembered in the ages. At some point in the future, extraterrestrial life may visit the remains of our earth and see the species who killed their planet. But if we as humans want a better legacy, changing our current course to focus on the future is a more prudent course of action.
Something that sort of sticks out to me whenever the concept of "legacy" is mentioned, is the remains of ancient civilizations. I mean, think of all of the Greek and Roman buildings that are thousands of years old, or the Egyptian pyramids and other monuments, now wasting away in the desert. Perhaps I'm getting all flowery or whatever, but to me this almost serves as a warning of what could happen in the future. If (and when for that matter) our entire society crumbles due to any number of apocalyptic circumstances (of which there are many, thanks to Hollywood), whoever survives will find legacies of our time; barren cityscapes, discarded consumer goods, crumbling infrastructure. I think it's interesting to postulate on what conclusions someone would come to upon finding such things. They say that societies build monuments to the things that they most exalt; for the pre-industrial revolution that was almost always some sort of religion. Today we build towers to commemorate corporations and wealth. Our cities are full of these. Maybe this says more about us as a society than anything that we write about ourselves.
After reading more of the responses it was interesting to me that almost everyone including myself believed that the legacy we should leave should improve or better something. While at the dinner table, legacy was brought up as a discussion between me and my dad. My dad thought that the legacy one should leave is more about the relationships you have with the people around you rather than doing/creating things. He is constantly striving to make a positive outlook for himself and treating others with kindness and respect. This got me thinking about my family members that have past and the legacy's they left. The ones that were kind and caring to me and my family had the biggest impact rather then the ones that went out and did something crazy. This lead me to believing that maybe you don't have to create something amazing or drastically change anything. But that the only legacy you need are relationships and whether you really positively effected those around you because at the end of the day those are the people that are going to care about and remember you after you pass.
Interestingly, for my IB English final today, I wrote an analysis of a poem having to do with legacy. The poem began by asking why we were human and what it all meant, then trying to answer the inquiry almost satirically from different perspectives. The author (Rainer Maria Rilke) came to her own conclusion when talking about the fleeting nature of human life: "But this having been once, though only once,/ having been once on earth-- can it ever be cancelled?/ And so we keep pressing on and trying to perform it, / trying to contain it within our simple hands ,/ in the more and more crowded gaze, in the speechless heart." Essentially, the concept that the only temporary part of your life at all is the fact that you existed, (however long it may have been for); the permanence of the fact that you were here on earth. Therefore, you might as well try and make something of your existence. Even if those somethings all fade away in time, that you were here at all is forever. That was probably unnecessary information, but when listening to these videos and thinking about legacy I found that the poem encapsulated a lot of my ideas. Within life, it is extremely easy to struggle with the concept of the futility of everything that you do. There are seemingly few things so fleeting as human life. Which means that the moments of your life are so insurmountably insignificant that leaving a legacy at all is impossible. I think the answer to this, or at least a method of coping with it, can be found in the poems lines that I referred to, "... can it ever be cancelled?" If we can realize the fact that the only permanent part of our existence is that we existed, than perhaps we can try and leave a ‘legacy.’ This is likely very convoluted, but I feel that it's necessary to try and overcome the futility of your actions before you can start to try and leave some sort of "mark on the earth" as others have put it. As far as the legacy we should leave goes, that is a question answered differently for each and every person. Some are content with trying to be as good of parents as possible, leaving the legacy of their children behind. Others have more vast goals of legacy, wanting to somehow change the world as so many others before them have tried. Personally, if I leave no legacy behind other than "she was a good person" I think I shall die content. I've been this way for a very long time. Being a person is the only thing I am guaranteed in this life, so I might as well be good at it. How do I achieve this? It's a good question. I don't know if I've succeeded thus far at being a 'good person' but I do know that I have tried. And sometimes I feel that that is enough. To leave behind the legacy that you want to leave behind, maybe you just have to try to do so. You might not succeed to the extent that you want to, but if you succeed at all then you’ve achieved some victory at least, however small and fleeting. After all, our only permanent legacy as far as the world is concerned is the fact that we existed.
Legacy. Legacy has created great things, and legacy has ruined lives. Legacy can be bad, legacy can be good. Interesting how everything in TOK kinda comes down to that. Leaving a good legacy is hard to figure out, because how do you define a good legacy? Good relationships? Successful career? To me, legacy is what you leave behind after you die. There is an afterlife in this world, a means of living after you've passed, and that afterlife is in the people who knew you when you were alive. Your children, your friends, loved ones. That kind of thing. One can leave a financial legacy in a company they've built up, or something of that sort, but what is important to me about legacy is living on through loved ones. My great grandkids hearing a story about me, long after I've gone. Wisdom, advice that I may or may not pass along to my following generations. Art that I make, quirks that I had, things that I did. Those still hold significance after I die, as long as I did them for people who will remember. however, a person too fixated on legacy rarely has a good one. To be remembered, you must first live. You can't be worried all the time about how you'll be remembers, because if you do that, that's how you'll be remembered. You can't live for your legacy, you have to wait until your legacy is in place, then you can see it. It should be an add on, not a goal.
Why do we need to have a legacy? Is this legacy pertaining to each individual specifically, or does the 'our' represent our society as a whole? But instead of getting hung up in the specifics of this question and all that applies to it, I will merely attempt to form an opinion around it. What do I think that our legacy should be? Well to look at it in a larger picture I think nothing, because at some point the earth is going to get devoured by the sun anyways. But I guess in this perspective I think that our legacy should be a way to continue on the human race. On a more smaller time scale however the answer is slightly different. I believe that in pursuing our larger goal of continuing the human race, we should also work to improve the human race and all that is around us. Except really I have issues with believing this because why does everything need to be improved? Why can't anything just be the way it is and be enough, even if it is flawed. Doesn't beauty come from the imperfections? So I guess really the only solid answer I have for this is that our legacy should be to survive and to survive well at that.
Now to address how to achieve this. Well I would like to point blank say that I don't have an answer. I would also like to mention the fact that I highly doubt anyone has an answer and therefore this question is unanswerable. But just because this is true does not mean that it should be asked. So in answer I believe that we should achieve this by each pursuing our own individual happiness while simultaneously pursuing global betterment. On a more personal level I want to leave a legacy that is one that can be looked back upon fondly. A legacy that will make a good story someday as people sit around a fire and ponder the wonderfulness of their lives. I want to leave a legacy that will continue to make others lives better long past my death. But the thing is, I don't need my legacy to be attached to my name, I don't need my actual person to be remembered, I just want to pass on a feeling of happiness that would have otherwise not been their. This may not be making any sense so more simply put, I want to improve peoples lives long past their death. And in being human I guess I believe that my way should be the way that all people take, and our legacy should be to improve people's lives long past their death, and that way our world can be a better place.
Why does each generation find it necessary to leave a legacy. Every one has it locked into their minds that they are going to be the ones to make the greatest impact, that they're the generation that will do "it", and be remembered for the decades to come. But why? In the event that we do make an impact it is seldom likely that we will actually be remembered in 60 years. We can't predict the future so why should something as large as a generational legacy be on the forefront of every ones mind. I think we should all worry about our own legacies and not our generation because chances are in 60 years it won't matter what WE did but it will matter what YOU did.
On the note of WHAT our legacy should be, since I've already stated I don't believe in the generational legacy I think that each person is in charge of their own legacy. You live our own life and you're in charge and now matter what you do there are people in your life who you will make an impact on and you will leave your legacy with them, even if it's even for the shorts amount of time. It's up to you on deciding what you want that legacy to be.
What everyone has thus agreed on is that a legacy should be positive, and that it is generally our impact left upon the earth after we have died. And I would agree with this, as have many others. Legacy is a part of culture so deeply ingrained in us, that people search for it in strange and unprecedented ways. "We do not inherit the earth from our parents, we borrow it from our children". It's a proverb from one culture or another, Arabic, if I'm not mistaken. Seeking fame and immortality is a lot of people's way to pursue a legacy, or having children, or passing heirlooms down through generations. No one wants to be forgotten, and I think that is one of mankind's biggest fears. To pass into vague recollection, to no longer matter, to have no effect. However, I would disagree with Jorunn and say that more often than not, unless the deeds you have done are very great indeed, the legacy the population leaves will be more important than your single legacy. I still feel a little bitter about the generations before us putting us in this energy, pollution crisis. The tragedy of the commons, if one is feeling unkind. And so I think subtle legacies are something that most of us are fated to, but I think think that it's beautiful. Especially as a musician, and living solidly in the moment as we are wont to do, I think the ability to make someone feel something in that one moment is all the legacy I will need. If for one instant I affect someone so much that they are moved to tears, it would be enough for me. And even if they don't remember it, if that moment is gone like the myriad of moments before it, it will still be a beautiful legacy. And I think that's all we can ask for, sometimes.
The legacy people should leave behind is one in which they were the best they could be, helped when and where they could, led by example, and positively contributed to society. No one person can change the world, but through cooperation and collaboration a progressive and positive change can be made. Each person has a specific interest, niche, or calling that they can and should follow to the best of their ability to help improve that field in our world.
ReplyDeleteA legacy that all people should have is that they lived happily and helped others. A person's legacy depends on their morals, however, and every persons legacy will be different. I am also a strong believer int he fact that people should not live to build a legacy, but to build themselves and their life. A good life will lead to a good legacy.
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ReplyDeleteWe leave behind our memories we create in our actions and with other people. Our legacy is how we are remembered by those who choose to remember us. Those memories we create may or may not actually define our legacy. The people we impact ultimately determine our legacies. Once we are gone, we can't control how we will be remembered. All we can do is live lives that promotes a positive legacy.
ReplyDeleteI found it interesting that when I looked up the definition for legacy I got these two responses: an amount of money or property left to someone in a will, and a thing handed down by a predecessor. The first definition surprised me more than the second one because it deals with money a very specific item left specifically in a will. I found it interesting though that the second definition still deals with a tangible object "thing". I don't necessarily believe that a legacy needs to be an object though, I see it more as an intangible thought that explains who you were, what you did, and how you did it, and is left for others to interpret and review. The legacy we leave is determined by our character, how we have lived our life and they can either be good or bad. Usually legacy is used after someone has passed, but now that I am thinking about it, it can be used to describe anything someone has stopped doing. For instance Michael Jordan, he left his legacy through his basketball career, and he is still alive. While Michael Jordan is famous and was known by many, I think everyone popular or not, leaves a legacy. The legacy might not effect as many people but it is always there for future generations to see and experience.
ReplyDeleteTo create a lasting legacy, one must be a role model. This could be anything from being an excellent parent to being a hall of fame athlete. Either way you have to do something that other people admire and want to emulate for years to come.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion I believe that the legacy we as individuals should strive to leave is one that affects others in a positive way and, hopefully, leaves people with positive memories of your actions. Whether it’s one big act of courage or many small acts of kindness, we should put our best foot forward whenever possible in whatever situation we choose to get involved in. For an athlete this may look like inspiring children to get involved in sports while for another person it could be volunteering at the homeless shelter and helping people get back on their feet.
ReplyDeleteObviously in life we want to leave a legacy that is positive and one that inspires others to act in the way you had during your life. I think that all humans should strive to be the best that they can be and acknowledge when failure occurs. I think that the best people in history are those who have taken their successes humbly and have tried their best to act morally but also acknowledge when they are wrong and move on from the past. I think that acknowledging the fact that we are humans and make mistakes is a crucial part in one's legacy, because many historical figures are made out to be perfect, godly creatures. However, when looking to those types of figures, the mistakes that we make in our daily lives makes it difficult to connect to those who seemingly have not made any mistakes. A legacy should be something that people look towards when they need help and a lot of people need somewhere to look when they are struggling in life or have made a huge mistake. This is super important to consider when considering what you want your legacy to be. For me, I hope that I leave behind the idea that making your wrongs right is the best way to live life, especially because it ensures that you are living a life free of grudges and regrets.
ReplyDeleteIdeally, we want to leave a positive legacy. We want to be the people who "changed the world for the better". We want to create the biggest shoes to fill; challenge the younger generations to go above and beyond what we've achieved, yet never forget that we were there first. However, from where I stand, we are heading toward leaving a legacy as the destructors of the world as we know it. Rather than leaving this realm as something to be remembered for, we'll be leaving as the generation of ruin, unless we make a radical U-turn. I feel like a hypocrite for saying this, because I don't have the answers to how to make such a rapid turn-around. What makes me worried though, is the inability of our generation to see past the immediate event or assignment. The advancement of the technological world has somewhat "sucked" the attention to a concentrated point, the self and the individual. This is contrary to the opportunities we have because of the modern world, specifically the expanded availability of information and travel options. Yet, the development of self-facing cameras, social media, and the growth of individuality has aggravated the disdainful quality of vanity. Maybe, the key to creating a legacy for our generation is to reform the way we view or selves in relation to the holistic view of the world.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what many other people have said. It is important to leave a legacy in which one has a positive impact on society. Of course we want to be remembered as a selfless positive role model. However, I believe that part of our legacy should be for ourselves. I think it is important to be able to look back on our lives and be happy with who we were and what we accomplished.
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ReplyDeleteThe thing about each generation is that they always have a good and bad legacy. There is always the part of a generation where in reflection the later generations realize the decisions they made or there paradigms were bad. It seems that human rights and environmentalism are the two subjects that we should try to strive for by reflecting on our past generations. If we could try to help the environment and people, we could possibly be known as the caring generation. Ultimately we need to try to leave the most positive legacy we can.
What we leave behind as a legacy is not as much dependent on our actions for the greater good (or bad) during our lifetime, but how others interpret them. Someone could do things the things they perceive as positive for the greater good, like Hitler's efforts to preserve the master race by exterminating the Jewish population, but most of the world perceived that as horrific. Thus, Hitler's legacy was mostly negative except to a small few who still revere him as a hero. We can do everything in our power to leave a legacy that we believe is good, but the legacy that is left is truly how it is perceived by our family, friends, and later generations.
ReplyDeleteOur legacy should be a generation that actually fixes something that needs fixing. This is kind of a generalization but I feel like a lot of the power in the world right now is investing in issues that are not the most pressing or have to do with personal gain but not much benefit on a global scale. With the incredible brains and technology in the world today, why is it so hard or why are we too lazy to start fixing what determines our futures right now? If we continue to self invest, although we may be "popular" in our time, we will by no means leave a legacy. I feel like that is why no one wants to leave a legacy, because it does not have instant gratification or gratification at all in our lifetime. If each generation leaves a positive legacy for the next generation, each generation will come with something already fulfilled while working to help the next generation like they were helped by the last.
ReplyDeleteFor me, the concept of legacy has less to do with the "mark you left on the world", and more to do with the mark the world left on you. Although some people are able to make great scientific, medicinal, humanitarian... etc. breakthroughs in their lifetimes, and such an achievement could definitely be considered their "legacy", most of us won't. Most of us won't be famous, or extremely powerful, or the leading researcher in whatever branch of the sciences we happen to be involved in. So speaking with this knowledge in mind, most of the "legacies" that people are able to leave are on a much smaller scale, and much more personal. And I truly think that the best way to set out about leaving any sort of legacy is to engage fully in life. To seek out things that intrigue and captivate you, and to seek out and form relationships with other human beings who live the same way. This is the best way to leave a "mark": to allow yourself to be marked by the life you live. The type of energy that this personal engagement in life creates is incredibly powerful- it's where more often than not major breakthroughs in medicine and science, and people who become famous for mastering or altering their craft, and people who are able to change the lives of others around them simply by existing fully, come from. This is how each person can leave a legacy. If every single person on the planet actively pursued the things that interested them and made them happy, we would have more innovation, and cultural evolution, and a bigger network of friendships and relationships than perhaps we'd know what to do with.
ReplyDeleteI believe the concept of legacy to be extremely important. I feel that people leaving their mark on the world so to speak is extremely fascinating. However, I'm not going to pretend for a moment that everyone can get the noble prize, or cure a disease, or be an Olympiad. Sometimes one has to set their sights a little lower in order to fully appreciate the legacy they are leaving. It isn't that people who don't do all those things are less important or less appreciable, merely less accessible. People can still be the pinnacle of the community, that volunteer that shows up when few others do, or that person who puts others before themselves every time. However, one does not need to be selfless in order to leave behind a positive legacy. For example, those who do their jobs well do get acknowledged with time for the amount of effort they put in. Heck, even people who don't make great contributions to the broader society at large. People who do things such as play mmorpg's get remembered for being exemplary, guide makers, record breakers, and just general personalities. No matter what you do, you can't help but leave a legacy at the least with those you know, but often with some of those who you don't know as well. Everybody has their place in the world, as the famous lines go "there's a time and place for everything," which I believe to extend to everyone as well. I believe that one is capable of achieving greatness if they look beyond the achievements of the most well known and notice their successes for what they are.
ReplyDeleteLeaving a legacy behind can be relative to individual people, or communities as a whole. The Romans left a legacy behind, and it can be interpreted as a group of people who conquered vast amounts of land and were powerful, or as people who were brutal rulers and subjected those under their power to harsh living standards. People like Copernicus also leave behind a legacy though, and the significance of it often relates to the nature of their accomplishment. Legacies seem to be important if people notice them, whether for their positive effect or negative impact. Generally, you would think most people want to have a good legacy, in which they are remembered for their respected qualities and contributions to making the world better. Yet there is a lot of emphasis now on becoming famous or rich, and not necessarily leaving a favorable legacy, but making enough noise that you get noticed. Everyone leaves a legacy in their loved ones and friends, but how does one achieve infamy for their good deeds, a remembrance that extends beyond their social circle? We should strive to achieve a legacy that is specific to us, whether it defines one person or a whole country. Our legacy should be a reflection of the changes we wanted to make to our society or life, an example of how we perceived the world, so that generations ahead of us can learn from it. But how can we fulfill such a legacy that truly symbolizes our character or purpose? I suppose someone could devote their entire life to the effort, every significant action they take in pursuit of that legacy, in making a difference where they think it matters, and in guaranteeing it is a positive one in any terms.
ReplyDeleteA legacy should be one left to others, but through yourself. I strongly believe our legacy should be to leave this planet better than how it was. In all sorts of contexts, like the environment, or education, or peace. However, I believe personal legacies are extremely important as well. It is difficult to leave a positive legacy for the outside world when you yourself are not, to say it simply, good.
ReplyDeleteIn order to leave more than just a positive impact on one individual by being a role model you have to be more. By doing this, I think our legacy should be one that future generations can learn upon and then leave this world better than it was before.
I believe our legacy should be to keep bettering the earth so that by the time death has arrived I am able to say I am proud of what I will see in this world before I die. I hope to leave this world knowing it has a legacy for preserving the environment, having all people in the world be able to be educated without the stress of debt and destruction. That is what I hope to leave the world knowing, knowing that we have grown into a place that is respected and looked up upon. I also hope that my personal legacy is something to be proud of. I want my peers and I to grow old knowing that other generations look at us as a generation that was hard working, generous, caring and motivated. It is hard to become someone who has a positive legacy but if you stay motivated and go just that extra mile you will leave a mark, and if we all do that we could become the generation that makes a change and leaves a positive legacy for others to follow.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the legacy one should leave is different for every person. It depends on the individuals job, money, ethics, family, opportunities and morals. Although each legacy is different each one should leave what ever they may be effecting better and more prosperous then what they started with. By leaving everything better then what you started with you set up the next generation for success and leave the positive mark on everything you do. Giving you an individualized positive legacy for many to remember.
ReplyDeleteI generally agree with the previous posts in that we want the legacy of our generation to represent that we created more positive outcomes than negative ones for the future generations, and by doing so made the world a better place for them. There is always this talk of the next generation inheriting the Earth in a certain state. I believe that the best legacy would be for us to let these children inherit an Earth that was better than the Earth that we inherited. In the first video the person mentions the huge problems facing our generation. I do not believe it is our duty to completely mitigate these problems and solve them for the subsequent generation. That is simply unrealistic. Rather, I feel that we should attempt to lessen these problems, putting as much of a dent I n these problems as possible, setting up the next generation to finish off the problems. In a way, I believe that every generation should feed off of others and they improve upon the successes and mistakes of previous generations and so on. In this way each generation will not feel the pressure of fixing every single problem, but merely be a cog in a continuous cycle of life that is attempting to make the world a better place and move society toward success bit by bit.
ReplyDeleteWhen people look at previous generations, there are always two things that people notice; the good side and bad side of that generation. It is inevitable that our generation will leave negative things; it is just a trend that will probably never be broken. The key is that our generation attempts to learn from the mistakes within our generation and try as hard as possible to fix the negative impacts, instead of just leaving those problems that we have created for the next generation to fix.
ReplyDeleteIn President Obama's recent state of the union address he said " America has been through big changes before -- wars and depression, the influx of new immigrants, workers fighting for a fair deal, movements to expand civil rights. Each time, there have been those who told us to fear the future; who claimed we could slam the brakes on change; who promised to restore past glory if we just got some group or idea that was threatening America under control. And each time, we overcame those fears. We did not, in the words of Lincoln, adhere to the “dogmas of the quiet past.” Instead we thought anew, and acted anew. We made change work for us, always extending America’s promise outward, to the next frontier, to more people. And because we did -- because we saw opportunity where others saw only peril -- we emerged stronger and better than before." His words perfectly capture how I feel about legacy. I think we owe it to future generations to be the best we can be, and not to fear change. We must embrace the world we see before us but realize that there is always something we can do to better it. This is the essence of progress in my mind, and I believe progress is the best legacy we can hope to leave behind. No problems are solved through ignorance and inaction.
ReplyDeleteMost often we believe to leave behind a legacy is to have made a difference and to make a difference we need to be some sort of master mind with a lot of money. But I don’t think that is the case at all. Doing small kind acts could be enough to leave behind a memory in minds of others which then would end up being our legacy. Although it would seem minute when compared to people we read in our history books, it should not stop the want or the pursuit to bring happiness and good into the lives of others.
ReplyDeleteAs a follow up to my previous post, we should not be blinded by the want or the need to leave behind a legacy. Life has more to offer and we can easily lose focus of that. We can easily lose focus of the bigger picture of life through the natural human frailty of greed. Greed for wealth, power, fame and more can subconsciously make us lose what is important.
ReplyDeleteThe word legacy has come to mean what you leave behind to the world, but that definition forgets one important reality: the world will never know. Except for a few, the entire world will not know of your passing, nor the legacy you leave behind. Even those who are well-known for one reason or another are often forgotten while they are still alive, only being celebrated upon death. If we acknowledge that, the fact that really only a few people will truly know of your legacy, the pressure to have a perfect one is diminished.
ReplyDeleteAlthough this pressure is natural as we age, it is an unnecessary fear and stressor. The important thing is to do as best as you can in everything you can, and to treat others with as much kindness as you can, and with those things, people will see your legacy.
First is the fulfillment of family. Family is the closest group of people to you throughout your life. Although there may be ups and downs and falling outs, family will, in the end, be the closest group of people to you, in most cases. Family will mourn you, family will make the arrangements at the time of your passing and family will truly contemplate your legacy. To “fulfill” family is to attempt to be understanding and kind towards these people, to do well by them when you shouldn’t necessarily have to.
In the pursuit of creating an impressive legacy, many may prioritize their careers over their family, but this is only perpetuating the misnomers of legacy. Impress those close to your first, then make new connections and do well by them as well, then focus your remaining energy on the rest of the world.
The reality is somewhat disheartening but simple: (Except in few cases) You cannot (on your own) really change the world. For that reason, you must lower the expectations that are naturally set for what someone should accomplish in their lives, because it only leads to an ending of self-disappointment. The only person’s perception of legacy which matters more than family is your own, so don’t tarnish it with overstress and regret.
I think the most important thing our generation has to think about is how we want future generations to view us. Personally, I don't want to be regarded as the generation who destroyed the planet, but would rather be known as the generation who fixed it. Sustainable energy is a pressing matter in this day and age, yet, regardless of the evidence, people find it hard to take solid action against climate change and related consequences. There seem to be other problems that are seen as more important, putting the health of our planet on the back burner. Action against climate change will only happen if the public agrees that it is an important issue. We need to stop allowing ourselves to be interrupted by the "politics" of politics and start looking for renewable sources of energy as a global community.
ReplyDeleteWhile there are many pertinent issues worldwide, climate change needs to be prioritized in order to insure some sort of immediate action. All other issues won't matter in 200 or 300 years when CO2 levels are through the roof and millions of square miles of land have been submerged. Though climate change seems like a less immediate issue when compared to international threats to security, or disputes over jobs and the economy, it will be the only issue of any importance when people realize that it can do serious damage to billions of lives. So to answer the question above, I suggest that the fight against climate change and the search for renewable sources of energy should be the legacy of our generation.
Our legacy should always be focused on the future. The idea of selfish sustainability is really a very powerful one. It relies on a more basic human motivator of helping oneself as a means to distribute that help amongst others as well. The irony of the situation is the very technologies and advancements that are causing us to pollute the earth are the ones we can take advantage of to exploit nature and better our own lives. Ultimately, humans are selfish beings. Sooner or later, the existential threat climate change poses will be realized and capitalism will have to find a profit in solving the crisis (as it already has) or else there may never be one found.
ReplyDeleteUltimately, legacy is all we have. A common maxim is that everyone dies two deaths. When their heart stops beating, and when their name is spoken for the very last time. Without investing in our legacy, someone really leaves no mark on the earth. It is up to their legacy, and how well they stoked the hearth of it during their lifetime, to determine how their name will be remembered in the ages. At some point in the future, extraterrestrial life may visit the remains of our earth and see the species who killed their planet. But if we as humans want a better legacy, changing our current course to focus on the future is a more prudent course of action.
ReplyDeleteSomething that sort of sticks out to me whenever the concept of "legacy" is mentioned, is the remains of ancient civilizations. I mean, think of all of the Greek and Roman buildings that are thousands of years old, or the Egyptian pyramids and other monuments, now wasting away in the desert. Perhaps I'm getting all flowery or whatever, but to me this almost serves as a warning of what could happen in the future. If (and when for that matter) our entire society crumbles due to any number of apocalyptic circumstances (of which there are many, thanks to Hollywood), whoever survives will find legacies of our time; barren cityscapes, discarded consumer goods, crumbling infrastructure. I think it's interesting to postulate on what conclusions someone would come to upon finding such things. They say that societies build monuments to the things that they most exalt; for the pre-industrial revolution that was almost always some sort of religion. Today we build towers to commemorate corporations and wealth. Our cities are full of these. Maybe this says more about us as a society than anything that we write about ourselves.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading more of the responses it was interesting to me that almost everyone including myself believed that the legacy we should leave should improve or better something. While at the dinner table, legacy was brought up as a discussion between me and my dad. My dad thought that the legacy one should leave is more about the relationships you have with the people around you rather than doing/creating things. He is constantly striving to make a positive outlook for himself and treating others with kindness and respect. This got me thinking about my family members that have past and the legacy's they left. The ones that were kind and caring to me and my family had the biggest impact rather then the ones that went out and did something crazy. This lead me to believing that maybe you don't have to create something amazing or drastically change anything. But that the only legacy you need are relationships and whether you really positively effected those around you because at the end of the day those are the people that are going to care about and remember you after you pass.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly, for my IB English final today, I wrote an analysis of a poem having to do with legacy. The poem began by asking why we were human and what it all meant, then trying to answer the inquiry almost satirically from different perspectives. The author (Rainer Maria Rilke) came to her own conclusion when talking about the fleeting nature of human life: "But this having been once, though only once,/ having been once on earth-- can it ever be cancelled?/ And so we keep pressing on and trying to perform it, / trying to contain it within our simple hands ,/ in the more and more crowded gaze, in the speechless heart." Essentially, the concept that the only temporary part of your life at all is the fact that you existed, (however long it may have been for); the permanence of the fact that you were here on earth. Therefore, you might as well try and make something of your existence. Even if those somethings all fade away in time, that you were here at all is forever.
ReplyDeleteThat was probably unnecessary information, but when listening to these videos and thinking about legacy I found that the poem encapsulated a lot of my ideas. Within life, it is extremely easy to struggle with the concept of the futility of everything that you do. There are seemingly few things so fleeting as human life. Which means that the moments of your life are so insurmountably insignificant that leaving a legacy at all is impossible. I think the answer to this, or at least a method of coping with it, can be found in the poems lines that I referred to, "... can it ever be cancelled?"
If we can realize the fact that the only permanent part of our existence is that we existed, than perhaps we can try and leave a ‘legacy.’ This is likely very convoluted, but I feel that it's necessary to try and overcome the futility of your actions before you can start to try and leave some sort of "mark on the earth" as others have put it.
As far as the legacy we should leave goes, that is a question answered differently for each and every person. Some are content with trying to be as good of parents as possible, leaving the legacy of their children behind. Others have more vast goals of legacy, wanting to somehow change the world as so many others before them have tried. Personally, if I leave no legacy behind other than "she was a good person" I think I shall die content. I've been this way for a very long time. Being a person is the only thing I am guaranteed in this life, so I might as well be good at it. How do I achieve this? It's a good question. I don't know if I've succeeded thus far at being a 'good person' but I do know that I have tried. And sometimes I feel that that is enough. To leave behind the legacy that you want to leave behind, maybe you just have to try to do so. You might not succeed to the extent that you want to, but if you succeed at all then you’ve achieved some victory at least, however small and fleeting. After all, our only permanent legacy as far as the world is concerned is the fact that we existed.
Farewell TOK. It was an adventure.
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DeleteLegacy. Legacy has created great things, and legacy has ruined lives. Legacy can be bad, legacy can be good. Interesting how everything in TOK kinda comes down to that. Leaving a good legacy is hard to figure out, because how do you define a good legacy? Good relationships? Successful career? To me, legacy is what you leave behind after you die. There is an afterlife in this world, a means of living after you've passed, and that afterlife is in the people who knew you when you were alive. Your children, your friends, loved ones. That kind of thing. One can leave a financial legacy in a company they've built up, or something of that sort, but what is important to me about legacy is living on through loved ones. My great grandkids hearing a story about me, long after I've gone. Wisdom, advice that I may or may not pass along to my following generations. Art that I make, quirks that I had, things that I did. Those still hold significance after I die, as long as I did them for people who will remember. however, a person too fixated on legacy rarely has a good one. To be remembered, you must first live. You can't be worried all the time about how you'll be remembers, because if you do that, that's how you'll be remembered. You can't live for your legacy, you have to wait until your legacy is in place, then you can see it. It should be an add on, not a goal.
ReplyDeleteWhy do we need to have a legacy? Is this legacy pertaining to each individual specifically, or does the 'our' represent our society as a whole? But instead of getting hung up in the specifics of this question and all that applies to it, I will merely attempt to form an opinion around it. What do I think that our legacy should be? Well to look at it in a larger picture I think nothing, because at some point the earth is going to get devoured by the sun anyways. But I guess in this perspective I think that our legacy should be a way to continue on the human race. On a more smaller time scale however the answer is slightly different. I believe that in pursuing our larger goal of continuing the human race, we should also work to improve the human race and all that is around us. Except really I have issues with believing this because why does everything need to be improved? Why can't anything just be the way it is and be enough, even if it is flawed. Doesn't beauty come from the imperfections? So I guess really the only solid answer I have for this is that our legacy should be to survive and to survive well at that.
ReplyDeleteNow to address how to achieve this. Well I would like to point blank say that I don't have an answer. I would also like to mention the fact that I highly doubt anyone has an answer and therefore this question is unanswerable. But just because this is true does not mean that it should be asked. So in answer I believe that we should achieve this by each pursuing our own individual happiness while simultaneously pursuing global betterment. On a more personal level I want to leave a legacy that is one that can be looked back upon fondly. A legacy that will make a good story someday as people sit around a fire and ponder the wonderfulness of their lives. I want to leave a legacy that will continue to make others lives better long past my death. But the thing is, I don't need my legacy to be attached to my name, I don't need my actual person to be remembered, I just want to pass on a feeling of happiness that would have otherwise not been their. This may not be making any sense so more simply put, I want to improve peoples lives long past their death. And in being human I guess I believe that my way should be the way that all people take, and our legacy should be to improve people's lives long past their death, and that way our world can be a better place.
ReplyDeleteWhy does each generation find it necessary to leave a legacy. Every one has it locked into their minds that they are going to be the ones to make the greatest impact, that they're the generation that will do "it", and be remembered for the decades to come. But why? In the event that we do make an impact it is seldom likely that we will actually be remembered in 60 years. We can't predict the future so why should something as large as a generational legacy be on the forefront of every ones mind. I think we should all worry about our own legacies and not our generation because chances are in 60 years it won't matter what WE did but it will matter what YOU did.
ReplyDeleteOn the note of WHAT our legacy should be, since I've already stated I don't believe in the generational legacy I think that each person is in charge of their own legacy. You live our own life and you're in charge and now matter what you do there are people in your life who you will make an impact on and you will leave your legacy with them, even if it's even for the shorts amount of time. It's up to you on deciding what you want that legacy to be.
ReplyDeleteWhat everyone has thus agreed on is that a legacy should be positive, and that it is generally our impact left upon the earth after we have died. And I would agree with this, as have many others. Legacy is a part of culture so deeply ingrained in us, that people search for it in strange and unprecedented ways. "We do not inherit the earth from our parents, we borrow it from our children". It's a proverb from one culture or another, Arabic, if I'm not mistaken. Seeking fame and immortality is a lot of people's way to pursue a legacy, or having children, or passing heirlooms down through generations. No one wants to be forgotten, and I think that is one of mankind's biggest fears. To pass into vague recollection, to no longer matter, to have no effect. However, I would disagree with Jorunn and say that more often than not, unless the deeds you have done are very great indeed, the legacy the population leaves will be more important than your single legacy. I still feel a little bitter about the generations before us putting us in this energy, pollution crisis. The tragedy of the commons, if one is feeling unkind. And so I think subtle legacies are something that most of us are fated to, but I think think that it's beautiful. Especially as a musician, and living solidly in the moment as we are wont to do, I think the ability to make someone feel something in that one moment is all the legacy I will need. If for one instant I affect someone so much that they are moved to tears, it would be enough for me. And even if they don't remember it, if that moment is gone like the myriad of moments before it, it will still be a beautiful legacy. And I think that's all we can ask for, sometimes.
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